Though the Class of 2020 always thought that their final year of high school would fly by, nobody ever expected it to Zoom.
On April 18, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that all K-12 students will continue distant learning until the end of the 2019-20 school year. After this announcement was made, many high school seniors took to social media in a storm.
“I never thought that we wouldn’t go back. I was like, ‘Oh, you know… we’ll shut down for two weeks, and then we’ll get right back to normal.’ I didn’t think [the virus] would shut everything down like it did,” said Morgan Kirchman, a senior at Lakewood Ranch High School in Lakewood Ranch.
Throughout the past four years, Kirchman was the State Family, Career and Community Leaders of America president, Chorus Leadership president, historian for Student Advisory Board, and Yearbook co-editor in chief at Lakewood Ranch.
Image provided by Morgan Kirchman.
Though she accomplished a lot during her senior year, Kirchman still wished she could have experienced that last day of school with her friends.
“You know, it’s a celebration of the seniors’ last day where everyone is hugging you and saying goodbye and… I feel like that day is really where you summarize your high school career. It just sucks because we had our last day of school but didn’t know it would be our last,” Kirchman said.
Luckily for Kirchman, she will hopefully be reunited with her classmates at Lakewood Ranch’s graduation on July 29.
“I’m glad they’re giving us the opportunity to do it, but I’m not getting my hopes up. It’s pretty concerning for me because Lakewood’s graduating class is so large,” Kirchman said.
However, not all high schools have granted the same possibility and have restricted students from attending a physical ceremony, like Creekside High School in Jacksonville.
“Our parents are actually getting mad because other counties around us are rescheduling, but our county is just canceling it. So instead, we are hosting virtual graduation on the day it was supposed to happen,” said Emma Carlton.
Along with Kirchman, Carlton also felt that the end of her senior year was cut short and underwhelming. Her biggest loss?
“Walking at graduation, definitely. The other day, I took senior pictures with my friends and we wore our caps and gowns, which was weird because we won’t ever get to wear them at our actual graduation. We won’t even be able to get a refund for them,” Carlton said.
Because of DeSantis’s social distancing orders, large gatherings and public events: prom, spring sports, and most importantly, formal graduation had to be disbanded.
Image provided by Emma Carlton.
However, during her senior year, Carlton became involved in many clubs at her high school. Her favorite was Best Buddies. There, she would eat lunch and create one-on-one friendships with students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
“We would meet up as a class and do different service projects, like fundraisers, and we would throw parties for them during the holidays and such. Being with them made me feel good and appreciative,” said Carlton.
Even though she doesn’t miss attending class, Carlton does wish she could still socialize and hang out with her friends and classmates.
She never thought that the week before spring break would be the last time she got to see them.
“It was the battle of the classes, so we all had to dress up based on our class and have our pep rally. Well, that ended up getting canceled because of the virus, so everyone decided to ditch school and went to the beach instead,” said Carlton.
Along with Kirchman and Carlton, other seniors who were affected by DeSantis’ orders were student-athletes who never got the chance to play their final game.
“My favorite memory from high school was basketball. It was the most fun thing about my senior year, especially because of my teammates and my coach. So when (the season) got canceled, it was pretty annoying,” said Tyana Romo, a senior at Bayshore High School in Bradenton.
Romo, after four years of hard work, had earned her title as the team captain of the Bayshore Bruins Girl’s Varsity Basketball team.
As captain, one of her first orders was starting a prayer circle before most games, which she believed helped her team perform better.
Image provided by Tyana Romo.
“We had two games that we had won that week, so I felt that we were building momentum. At the time I didn’t know that we weren’t going back, so it was kind of a shock when they announced that school was canceled. We were not expecting that,” Romo said.
Aside from basketball, Romo liked to attend other sporting events with her best friend, Bri, and play on her school’s flag football team.
“My biggest loss from this was not having our flag football season. There was nothing else I was really looking forward to because I wasn’t going to prom. It was the fun part, you know? Basketball is my main sport, but flag football was just for fun,” Romo said.
Although Kirchman, Carlton, and Romo have had different experiences and opinions on their final year, they all agree on one thing: they wish they wouldn’t have taken it for granted.
“If I would have known my last days would be my last days, I would have appreciated them more, and I would have treated them differently. I would have talked to my school friends more. I would have spent more time talking to my teachers and coaches. I would have noticed the little things,” Romo said.
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