How COVID affected H-F Seniors

Bye+Bye%21+Seniors+enjoying+one+of+their+last+nights+together+at+a+potluck%21

Bye Bye! Seniors enjoying one of their last nights together at a potluck!

Class of 2022. We made it. Through having the best lunch ever freshman year to being the only people in the school who witnessed the infamous H-F blackface walkout.

We had a very interesting high school experience. However in my opinion we had the luckiest high school experience in terms of how COVID affected us.

Now hear me out. We had our full freshman year of high school, we arguably had the best lunch, from the 2 for a dollar cookies, to the buffalo wings every Thursday. We got to witness Lip-Sync at max capacity and school spirit was at an all time high.

“Freshman year was so fun, the lunch was quality and cheap, there were so many activities for everyone to do and it gave me a good taste of what high school should be like.” said Senior Jairus Miller.
We had most of our sophomore year, and still got to experience a solid one and a half years of high school before COVID.

Yes, we missed our junior year and I can not speak for everyone in the school but many agree that junior year is the hardest year of high school. However, since ours were online it was much easier than expected.

Senior Brendan Kaffo agrees, “I was dreading my junior year, I heard so many upperclassmen say it was the hardest year of their life and us taking it online made it a lot easier on me”, he said. Kaffo wrapped by stating, “My GPA got better during E-Learning and I was not very stressed by school when learning at home”

A lot of teachers never got used to teaching online so many assignments were easier, if you had an E-Period you did not have to be until 8:30 unlike in person where you have to be in class by 7:30, which means you were probably getting around 7 a.m at the latest.

Lastly we came back to in-person classes for our senior year, one I would say has been by far the least stressful year of high school yet. It was good to see everyone you haven’t seen in awhile and say our final goodbyes and make our last one to remember.

So why did we get the best of COVID?

Remember when I said we got to say our final goodbyes and enjoy our last year of high school. That is something that neither class of 2021 or 2020 got to do. Class of 2020 did not even get a graduation or a prom.

Class of 2021 also did not get a prom and their graduation was small because there were so many different days to graduate meaning they could not even say one final goodbye together.
What about the classes under us?

Class of 2023 missed half of their freshman year and, after not being in school for a year and a half, they had to resume in person learning during in my opinion the hardest year of high school, junior year. That is not an easy task for anyone.

Not only did they resume high school during a very tough academic year, due to their class not having a full freshman year and no in person sophomore year, they missed out on a lot of core classes. That makes it harder to stay up to date and track with current classes.

Class of 2024 and 2025 also did not get the best from COVID. Both missed their 8th grade dinner dance and class trips which are experiences that everyone should have.

After not being in school since 6th and 7th grade they resume school in high school, which would be scary for anyone; it’s very intimidating.

Nick Calomino, a freshman, said his biggest adjustment to high school was, “getting used to high school was a challenge, at middle school I knew everyone now in high school there are so many people.”

Adjusting to a relatively small middle school to a school of over 2,800 after not being in school for around two years is no easy feat.
Imagine last time you were in school it was with other kids ranging from the ages of 11-13, and you go back to school two years later and there are 700 17 and 18 year old adults roaming the school.

Not to say we had it easy as class of 2022, because COVID was easy on no one, but I do believe we got it better than the two classes ahead and behind us.

Sometimes being the middle child does have its benefits and it certainly played to our benefits for our high school career.