The Lion's Den

There’s an age-old adage about the high school experience that always appears in just about every cheesy coming of age movie: high school is the best time of your life. Unfortunately, in light of lockdown, the events that always make the saying seem a bit fuller aren’t able to happen. So, what events has the average Edgewood Student missed out on, and does it take away from our high school experience?

One of the major let-downs of Edgewood’s sports history is baseball’s cancellation. During the 2019 school year, our baseball team made it far in the season, and was arguably one of the major leading sports teams that year; this achievement was a crowning moment ending off the 2018-2019 school year. Following their 2020 season, they opened the first game of the season with a ceremony opened by senior Gabriela Atkinson. Yet despite their feats of athletic excellence, along with the hopes of the school, the team “didn’t have any [home runs] this year [...] due to the virus,” says junior Matthew Thach Lopez.

It isn’t just sports, either. Every semester, every dance class, club, or team performs at a showcase hosted by Mrs. McPhee-James; as the biggest arts programme on Edgewood’s campus, it was not a surprise that it would have been cancelled. When school starts again in the fall, we can only hope that the Winter Dance Showcase will happen again, like in past years.

On a more academic level, after learning that they qualified to compete at the state level, Edgewood’s High School’s (Division C) Science Olympiad team learned that their competition at CalTech was cancelled. While this was a devastating blow to the team, luckily no events will be rotated out of order, helping the teams to easily adjust for the next season. Even if it was cancelled, it still proves to be an amazing moment in Edgewood’s academic history.

And much like Science Olympiad, finals week carries with it it’s long-standing, infamous reputation into the world of online learning. Junior Juliana Sandoval says that “Quarantine is the best thing to happen to my math grade [and brain],” and I couldn’t agree more. Finals week is incredibly stressful, and offers very little consolation to students with courses like math and english one after the other; however, because of online learning, students have the option of taking their finals without hurting their GPA. Clearly, missing out on school has some benefits after all.

But given all the benefits of quarantine, it's only natural to have setbacks. Arguably, prom is the most anticipated event for Juniors and Seniors. It symbolizes a passing of the torch from the latter to the former, signaling an end to the semester; it also proves to be one of the best dances of the school year. However, like many other things, prom was cancelled. On the bright side, it was able to be hosted virtually via Zoom- the titles of prom prince and princess were awarded to Nicholas Castillo-Davidson and Gabriella Atkinson, who partied with each other at the end of the night.

COVID-19 and quarantine has impacted school life a lot, no doubt about it. But, it’s infinitely better knowing that getting sick or infecting others isn't an option, thanks to several cancellations and careful approaches Edgewood has made to safeguard our health. While this school year may have been cut short, there are still many things to look forward to, especially in the summer. After all, quarantine doesn’t really take away from the high school experience; because of it, you’ll have lived the craziest year of your life- not physically, at least.