Loveland, Colorado … I remember being in fourth grade and counting on my fingers to see what year I would graduate: 2020. Perfect vision, I remember thinking. Now, with the coronavirus causing so much uncertainty, the year of “perfect vision” seems ironic. Too often, I hear people say my class is special to be part of such a huge world event; the first senior class ever to experience a worldwide pandemic such as this.
This, however, is not the first historical milestone the class of 2020 has seen. The year we were born, the world grieved the attack on 9/11, and we will be the last graduating class to have been alive for that infamous day. When we were six years old, the first iPhone was released. When we were five, Facebook was available, and by the time we were in fifth grade, Instagram was popular. The first black president of the United States was elected when we were in first grade. Throughout our lives, school shootings have been a constant threat. We saw the rise of the #metoo and #blacklivesmatter movements. Our freshman year began with the election of Donald Trump. The end of our senior year is marked by COVID-19.
This latest event in our lives has derailed all the plans we have been making the past four years. Being a senior stinks right now, and although we will always be known as the class that had our senior year stolen from us, I hope that we will also be known for our ability to adapt to life’s challenges.
The world we will join after graduation is vastly different from the world we were born into, but all the changes we have seen in our lifetime have helped to prepare us for the many curves life will throw at us. The class of 2020 may not have a perfect vision of the future, but we can see how to rise above the challenges that come our way.
—Ashley Herber, Student Editor, This Week at Campion; photo supplied
