The Lion's Den

Seniors. The time has come to say our goodbyes to highschool. We worked through rough beginnings to push through a trifling end. No class has been through what we’ve been through. Some left highschool during wars, one while still grieving 9/11, many through turmoil specific to their school due to natural or man made disasters… but never has there been a class throughout the world that sacrificed their end of senior year to the extent of the class of 2020.

We never saw this attack coming. It came in darkness, captured our happy ending, and is now basking in our fear and disappointment. Still, we are pushing through, making history not just by surviving, but altering our lives on a grand scale that never could have been foreseen. Some of us are going to join the military to prepare for a war of guns and bombs, some the government to prevent the wars, and some… to battle the unseen war, disease. Nurses and doctors fight Covid-19, risking their lives. Psychologists and psychiatrists are helping people who have picked up the bottle, battling suicidal thoughts, and increased depression because of the stay at home orders and hopelessness that comes with the situation. Government and religious figures are trying to find the balance between the safety of the public and carrying out the jobs they swore to do. These people are fighting a war they have never fought until now… but we will be even more prepared for the next, preventing what should have already been prevented. We are the future. We may not have the degrees or experience to fight with doctors, the government, and religious figures, but we will.

And even though our future seems bright, the present looks glim. We are all torn between the safety of those around us and the loss of what was promised all but a couple months ago. We may not see Prom or Grad Night, but we will see each other. Whether it's tomorrow or next year, there will be a chance to see each other again. I can’t wait to hug my friends again, to hear their laughs, see their smiles, because the only thing that mattered to me in highschool was them. We weathered so many storms together and now we weather the largest one of all. You have all become my family. We laughed, cried, jumped for joy, went through 4 years together, of which we will never forget. When we will see each other again, when I can’t say, but I plan on seeing you sometime in the future, whenever it may be.

When my dad went to his AA meetings, he couldn’t find a sitter, so I came along. There was one thing I could never forget from those meetings:

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

I have serenity for the things I cannot change… the virus, cancelation of events, distance from those around me. But I have found the courage to change what I can… faith, hope, and love. I have faith we will pull through this together, I have hope of seeing as many of you as I can, and I love you seniors! I am glad we have not lost anyone of you to the virus! I wish you all the wisdom to know what you can and cannot change. We don’t have to like the situation, I don’t… but if it turns us bitter, hopeless, fearful… the virus has beaten not our immune system, but our right to be happy. I refuse to let it take that right from me. We will come through this and one day, we will laugh, cry, jump for joy, and live… together. We are the class that has lost the most, but we are also the class that will have come through the other end the strongest. We are the Class of 2020.