Being A Senior During A Pandemic

Oh man, the stress is really building now. 

If you're a senior too, you totally get what I mean. They all told us "the most stressful year of high school is going to be your junior year," but oh boy they did not prepare us for the rollercoaster that is college applications. Kind of ironic, really. Everyone claims that senior year is supposed to be your year, the time for you to get out there and relax and celebrate all your accomplishments with your friends. They did leave out one minor detail though - none of this happens until after college decisions come out.

And the period between college decisions and junior year? The most stressed I've been in a long time. Or rather, ever. 

Now, this would all be fine and dandy if we were also in regular school. Well, fine would be pushing it (the stress of applications isn't going to go away that easily) but still, it would be more manageable when you see other seniors suffering just as much as you, and laughing with your friends during classes now and then never hurt. Not to mention the joy of homecoming and senior year festivities. But now we have that robbed away from us too, thanks to the pandemic. 

Isn't it crazy how long the pandemic has been going on? I can't believe that once upon a time I was sitting in a classroom in March, right before spring break, talking about what we were going to do if we never returned to school. And now here I am, almost eight months later, nearly driven to insanity by a microscopic virus that hasn't even directly affected me (yet, anyways). I know all the introverts are loving it, but frankly I think it's gone for far too long. I'm pretty sick of people not wearing masks whenever they go out, and I'm not talking about just the Karens. Holy shit, the amount of people I've seen on Instagram where y'all are out not even trying to wear a mask? Man, sometimes I'm so tempted to just call you out, but then I don't want to seem like the asshole. But come on guys, you can't go from posting on your Insta story about the importance of masks four months ago and then suddenly post something else that shows you hugging your best friend (no masks, of course.) It's literally hypocrisy at its finest, have some decency guys. 

Anyways, back to what I was saying. See, I get that people were super sad that the graduating class of 2020 didn't get any fancy celebrations or a normal graduation and things, and I think people are justified for that. I do think that our class of 2021 is getting some of that "middle child" neglect though. As much as I sympathize for the class of 2020, they at least got some normal high school experiences in the time that they had. I'm talking homecoming, winter festivities, senior skip day, and senior prank day. But us? Class of 2021? We don't even get that, and I'm sure that none of us are expecting a graduation anytime soon either. It's a little annoying how we're getting shoved to the side right now. I mean, I can't blame anyone of course, we all have our lives, but I do think we deserve a little bit more sympathy. 

Think about it, we're literally applying to colleges in the middle of a pandemic. Let me tell you though, that's going to make one heck of a story for my grandkids one day. But still, I think there are both pros and cons to this. Obviously you get a lot more time to work on your application and stuff - or so they say. I don't know about you, but I feel like online school's been giving a lot more work than what I would have gotten during a normal school year. Plus, I don't like sitting on my butt for eight hours a day straight just for school. But yeah, at least I have some time during the weekend to look at it. Then there are the cons - for one, I can't directly ask my teachers for letters of recommendation, and it honestly sucks. I feel like that personal connection is lost when you can't do that, and I absolutely hate it. I don't know about you, but emails seem so robotic sometimes, there's just no emotion or depth in it so it's hard to ask for stuff through that. Plus, you can't do any sort of competitions during this time. (Okay actually I'm not complaining about that, I don't think I could handle all of that plus competitions going on constantly). 

Not to mention, even after all this college stress, chances are we're still going to be stuck at home. No prom, no graduation, no nothing. Fun times, aye?

Still, I'm kind of proud of our class. Look at everything we've gone through. We got standardized testing taken away from us, we got our clubs taken away from us, we got our sanity taken away from us. We have to deal with our crazy families on a daily basis and some of us can barely ever see our friends. And yet, we've made it this far and we're still striving forward. I don't care what you say, I think our class - rather, our generation - is some of the strongest bunch the world has seen yet. We cope with life through memes and Tik Tok. We get through the day by playing games or texting people. We're all in the same boat and we all know it. Seriously, mad props to anyone in high school right now. Some love to the freshies in college too though, because god knows how they're navigating "online college" right now. 

This has been another rant by yours truly. Stay safe out there everyone, don't let the pandemic get to you. If you live in America, then I'm sorry with the people you have to deal with (anyone not living in America, consider yourselves lucky). Just hold on for a little while longer, we won't let the pandemic last forever. Besides, you gotta survive so you can brag to future generations, let's go get that clout! 

Have a great day everyone.

-Ganga Prasanth