High School Derailed
Isabelle Paradis is currently in grade twelve at Parkside Collegiate Institute in St. Thomas. This is her first article for young & free press… recently, we invited high school and post-secondary students to contribute pieces that reflect on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
March 2020 was supposed to be a fun month for me. Starting off with celebrating my 18th birthday, I would follow that with a week-long vacation in Cozumel, a Billie Eilish concert in Detroit, and the chance to see a production of Hamilton: An American Musical at the Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto. All of those plans were quickly derailed within a few days. Postponed family celebrations, shortened trips and cancelled performances became my new reality.
As I’ve spent the last week-and-a-half in isolation, representatives of the various levels of government in Canada have announced new steps to contain the COVID-19 pandemic that prevent me from being able to connect in-person with my friends, and make the possibility of returning to school to finish my grade 12 year seem further and further from reality.
Now, I understand that all of these steps are logical and absolutely necessary for the public health system. It would be foolish to attempt to mitigate this any other way. However, taking these steps has caused a staggering impact on our society and everyone has been affected by this pandemic. Local businesses are being forced to temporarily close, restaurant employees are getting minimal shifts (if any), grocery store and pharmacy workers are putting in long hours in compromised environments, and families of healthcare workers are being kept apart in the hope of keeping everyone safe. The impacts of COVID-19 will go on indefinitely.
Looking at my own community of St. Thomas, my heart goes out to local business owners who are facing likely the most challenging time of their lives. I feel the hurt of artists who can no longer perform at an Open Mic Night at Streamliners Espresso Bar, or have their work displayed at the St. Thomas Elgin Public Art Centre. I admire the determination of businesses continuing to find ways to serve the community, like brunch basket deliveries from Seed Confections and daily Instagram Live programming from Pearce Williams Summer Camp. These organizations are demonstrating how, even in times of crisis, our community can stay strong and connected.
In the wake of all the issues caused by this outbreak, there is a group that I feel is experiencing some of the most significant but unacknowledged loss right now: high school seniors. This wave of changes has hit us just as hard as everyone else, and we have so much at stake in the next few months. We have already begun to grieve. With a ban on large group gatherings and no determined date to return to school, we are coming to realize that we may lose our senior prom. This may sound dramatic and selfish to be worried about given all that is happening right now, but it is significant for us. We have worked hard for 13 years of our lives with the assumption that we would have the opportunity to finish and celebrate our accomplishments. We were looking forward to getting dressed up in the dress or suit that we had dreamed about for years, having our hair and makeup done, and spending an amazing night dancing, laughing, and celebrating with the friends we’ve made over the past four years. We are grieving the loss of final sports games with our friends, tours with our school band, senior field trips, and our school-wide fundraising events. We are worried that we won’t be able to hold a grad banquet or a commencement celebration, walk across the stage in our cap-and-gown in front of our parents and teachers, and finally be able to say, “we made it.” Above all, we are terrified that we will lose our last days as high school students, and that our path to post-secondary education may be blocked. The irony is that all these years we’ve wished that we wouldn’t have to worry about school, but the second it gets taken away, we realize just how significant it was to our lives.
As high school students, we have the right to be upset. We have the right to think that this isn’t fair. We have the right to ask why this had to happen to us. In short, we can grieve the losses that we never expected. Whenever we express our feelings about this, we are told that we are being selfish, that we are only thinking of ourselves and not the well-being of our communities and the most vulnerable in our society. We are told to get over ourselves and move on with our lives by adults who may have forgotten why this is such a significant loss for us. How could they understand? They had their senior prom, they got to experience a senior spring, they got to walk across the stage and get their diploma, and they were able to feel what it’s like to experience their final days in the school building that they called home for four years. They got those opportunities because they worked hard to earn them. For us, the rewards and celebrations that we aimed for seem to be vanishing because of something that is completely beyond our control. Through no fault of our own, we are being robbed of our senior year.
Despite all this, we understand that drastic measures are necessary, and although we may have the right to grieve, we also have a responsibility to rise above our individual thoughts and needs and consider the public good and the hardships of others. We are grateful that steps are being taken to put our health and our communities first, and we know that this is not an overreaction. Students do understand the severity of this situation, and as much as we can, we are doing our part to practice social distancing. We know that this is not about us – but we can still feel upset! Our proms, graduations, and final days at school were supposed to be about us. We were supposed to have our moment to shine, to say “look at me and all that I’ve accomplished.” Now, all of that is up in the air. We will comply, we will do our part, and we will keep our heads high and our attitudes positive throughout this mess that we’re living through. We will Facetime our friends rather than hang out in-person, and do our school-work from home, if that is what is required. We will do our part to flatten the curve despite the pain that we are enduring.
In a way, our graduating class may come out stronger than we were before. We will find ways to connect with each other and end our years together in the best way that we can. This graduating class started their lives in the wake of the terrors of 9/11, and they are starting adulthood in the midst of a worldwide pandemic – we are accustomed to adversity, and we will grow from this experience. For the time being, we will sit at home, and we will wait patiently for good news. This is not the end of the world for us, but it does matter. So, as you sit at home and do your part to stop the spread of the virus, send some love to the high school seniors in your life! Tell them you’re there for them and you understand that they’re grieving. As we all work to fight COVID-19 and return to life as we know it, do your part: for your family, for the elderly and vulnerable, for the front-line workers, and for the Class of 2020. And please, above all else, wash your hands.
