DEAR CLASS OF 2020 A s this issue is the senior issue, the senior staff thought it necessary to address what’s been on our minds recently. On March 12, we went to school like any other normal day. Yes, some people were concerned about school closures in light worsening pandemic, but of others didn’t even consider it a possibility. We didn’t know we wouldn’t be back at school the next day, or that we wouldn’t return at all. We had our last day of high school and didn’t even know it. Our class has been diligent. Whether applying to college or planning our futures, our class handled these challenges with grace. We spent time studying, working part-time, training for sports, participating in extracurriculars. For many of us, our last semester should be the reward for all this hard work. It’s supposed to be all worth it in the end. Our class has gone through together. hardships experienced multiple We protests and movements, major fires, and the PG&E power outages. The last few months were supposed to be a time for our class to come together to celebrate us pushing through and overcoming these hardships. From the moment we enter the high school, we are inundated with tradition. The rallies, the games, the dances, grad night, last chapter dinner, prom, and graduation. We envisioning ourselves on those days one, two, even three years in advance. We never thought that it would be stripped away from us in just one day. So it hurts. That’s the only way to put it. It hurts to see something that other have experienced, been that is a rite of passage for many high schoolers, robbed without any control over it. We’ve trying to cope. Taking up a new hobby, trying to get outside more often, trying to see this as an opportunity. But it’s not. Nothing will replace what could have been. No matter how you try to twist it, we are isolated from normalcy, left without something that we earned and worked hard for. It’s okay to be sad. Inevitably, people will try to undermine your despair and tell you that others students something remember are worse off. While this is true, there’s no doubt that this is still a loss. So be upset, be frustrated, and be disappointed. No one has the right to take that from you. It’s okay. However, we are unique in that we’re one of the only classes that have gone through this. Everywhere, the class of 2020 is having a huge chapter of our life, the one where we say goodbye to our childhoods, taken away from us with no control over it. So at some point, we have to realize that we aren’t in this alone. Not only is the class of 2020 sharing this experience worldwide, but also our class at Drake. We were all looking forward to the same honored and loved traditions that are now being taken away from us. We’re experiencing this sense of loss together. We start high school full of firsts but in our minds, we know that there will also be lasts. We had our first day of school, first rally, first dance, and many more of these firsts. We may have not knowingly gotten the last of these memories, but we should focus
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