Cassidy Young was ready to be her tennis team’s captain. Max Taylor was set to play the marimba in football game halftime shows. Chloe Pryson was on the homecoming court.
But none of that happened.
The Class of 2021 has missed half its senior year due to COVID-19 and, with increasing cases of the coronavirus, there’s little hope things will return to normal before graduation.
“It really sucks, to say it plainly,” Young said.
Young, 17, a Grand Blanc High School senior, is like thousands of other Michigan students missing out on the most memorable parts of their final year in high school – senior night at sporting events, prom dress shopping, homecoming dances, the student section at Friday night football games and even senior skip day.
When she was sent home from school during the last couple months of her junior year, Young didn’t think the coronavirus pandemic would mean her senior year would be spent at home away from her classmates, teachers, teammates and friends, too.
“I was super excited actually at first because we were told a two-week break,” Young said. “I just assumed two weeks off of school and everything goes back to normal.”
Related: Coronavirus pause causes concerns of mental toll on high school athletes
Young is holding onto a sliver of hope that she’ll return to school before June, but her high school faces a challenge in keeping all 2,000-some students safe. She and her friends Facetime and try to celebrate milestones, like 18th birthdays, in a safe but special way, she said.
“It just feels like I’m missing out,” Young said. “There’s really nothing you can do to cope with it, you just have to accept it and move along.”
This year’s seniors also are a little jealous of the Class of 2020. That class was in school the majority of their senior year before the pandemic struck, and were publicly applauded with banners, parades and special celebrations, Young said.
“We have gotten nothing except for more work and more of the school year (lost),” Young said. “We don’t have a homecoming. We didn’t get to go to any football games. We don’t have the Sadie Hawkins dance. There’re so many things that we’re missing that they got to do. But they got all this recognition and sympathy, and we don’t.”
Young’s mom, Savannah Gillette, said she too is disappointed to miss out on her daughter’s senior year milestones.
“Every mom looks forward to dress shopping,” Gillette said of her daughter’s senior prom.
Milestones like that have been anticipated since Gillette found out she was having a daughter 17 years ago, she said. It’s sad that so many students are missing out on making the memories they’ll one day look back on, she said.
“My heart goes out to these kids,” Gillette said.
Taylor, 17, a Portage Northern High School senior, said his final year of marching band and likely his wrestling season, which he’s been building muscle for all fall, are lost because of the pandemic.
He played the marimba, a percussion instrument, in one halftime show, but the band didn’t compete this year. His wrestling team has yet to begin its season that was supposed to start in November.
“I was really excited for this wrestling season,” Taylor said. “I’ve been trying to get stronger and working on different moves to use.”
Taylor was also looking forward to taking his girlfriend to the prom this spring, he said, and walking across the stage at Western Michigan University’s Miller Auditorium at graduation.
“It’s disappointing because that’s where my mom graduated from college,” Taylor said. “So, I was going to walk where she walked.”
Despite the many disappointments, Taylor said he is thankful for his support system at church and a home where he can do school remotely.
“I’m actually doing pretty well,” Taylor said. “I definitely have times where it gets kind of sad and hard to process what’s going on, but I have a nice place to do my work. I still have people I can talk to.”
A tennis player since her freshmen year, Young also is disappointed with missing sports.
“Once the (stay-at-home-order) extensions kept coming, I got scared and a lot more nervous about what was to come,” Young said.
And now, in the ninth month of the pandemic, Young’s graduation and chance to have an open house are in jeopardy.
“It’s really disappointing, I won’t get to walk across the stage,” Young said. “I’ve heard it’s a really good feeling, like a feeling of completion in a way, and I won’t get to experience that.”
The coronavirus pandemic is also affecting Young’s plans for college, she said. She had planned to go to a large Michigan university to become a teacher, she said.
“Now though, it has completely flipped my world upside down,” Young said. “I actually have no idea what I want to do anymore.”
Pryson, 17, a senior at Jackson’s Lumen Christi Catholic School, said missing out on college tours has made her senior year less than what she anticipated. While she’s able to send in applications, she can’t see campuses in person and is considering her options should colleges and universities remain virtual next fall.
Pryson attended one soccer practice in the spring before being sent home. This fall, she never got to lead the marching band as drum major. The abrupt end to her soccer season was shocking, she said. But like many others, Pryson and her teammates thought the interruption would be short lived.
“We said we will be back to normal in no time, and here we are nine months later,” Pryson said.
Pryson hoped the pandemic wouldn’t bleed into her senior year and that by the time school resumed in the fall, things would be back to normal. While she has spent some time learning in-person at the private Catholic school, it’s far from a normal year, Pryson said.
“It was interesting because it kind of felt normal but obviously we all had to wear masks and we had our desks far apart from each other,” she said.
Classmates also no longer packed into the cafeteria for weekly all-school mass, and pep rallies are streamed live to each classroom, Pryson said. There was no student section at football games.
“But it’s been really nice to be able to be in school and get to see my friends and my teachers every day,” Pryson said. “That was really a privilege that I’m happy I’ve gotten to have in the past few months.”
Along with the pivot back to online learning mandated by the most recent state order, Pryson’s basketball season is on hold. The team did one week of tryouts before being sent home with hopes for maybe some playing time in January.
It’s “disheartening,” Pryson said, as she believes this year was slated to be her team’s best season yet after winning districts last year for the first time in nearly two decades.
“I’m trying to remain hopeful on that one because this season has been one I’ve literally looking forward to my whole life,” Pryson said. “Basketball is probably my favorite sport that I play, and I’m captain this year. It was going to be a pretty big season for me and my teammates.”
Pryson hasn’t given up hope for the season yet, she said.
“My team and I we’re all just trying to keep our spirits high and remain hopeful that we’ll be able to actually have a season,” Pryson said.
“I put things into perspective and realize that yeah I’m missing out on a lot of opportunities that I’ve been looking forward to, but I think our whole Class of 2021, we’ve had to accept that. Keeping people safe and healthy is obviously the most important thing for our whole society.”
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The Link LonkDecember 06, 2020 at 10:00PM
https://www.mlive.com/news/2020/12/class-of-2021-has-little-hope-for-normalcy-in-senior-year.html
Class of 2021 has little hope for normalcy in senior year - MLive.com
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