Many of us would agree that our Senior year of High School was one of the most memorable years of our life. Between graduation, college acceptance letters, Prom, and the knowledge that it’s the last year spent in your hometown (and parents’ house no less), it’s a time that we both never want to end, and can’t get past soon enough. Unfortunately, for the class of 2020, most of these traditions were devastated by COVID-19. In this series, we chat with Seniors to find out the extent of the impact to their final year of High School and what they’ve done to salvage those memories.
Meet George G., an 18-year-old student from Sichuan who’s finishing up his senior year at Beijing World Youth Academy (BWYA).
Can you briefly walk us through how COVID-19 has evolved for you, personally? What were your initial thoughts? At what point did you realize the devastation and disruption it was causing? How do you currently feel?
My parents used to talk about a fair amount of the devastation the old SARS virus caused. So naturally, I was quite alarmed when I started seeing articles comparing COVID-19 to SARS. Initially, I started taking a fair amount of precautions from starting to wear masks in school to buying more masks online. Yet, I never expected the virus to develop from a local crisis into a global pandemic. Now going into my third month of quarantine, the length of this epidemic was also something I did not anticipate in the beginning. I realized the severity of COVID-19 when I saw the hospital in front of my house packed with masked people, and when countries started reporting infections one after the other. Right now, as China gradually takes a turn for the better, I’ve pretty much passed the period of panic, and moved on to looking forward to getting back to normal life.
Senior year of High School is supposed to be one of the most memorable years of your life. Unfortunately, however, you and your peers aren’t getting to enjoy all that it has to offer. Can you tell us a bit about that? What are the conversations that are happening amongst your friends right now?
Well unfortunately because of the virus, my senior year will remain as the most memorable year of my high school life, just not in the positive way as I’ve hoped it to be. I did enjoy how I can figure out how to properly spend time with myself a bit more, and get better lifestyle-wise when staying at home. The conversation amongst me and my peers ranges all the way from whether our school will ever get to open again before we completely finish high school, to all the daily trivia – food, jokes, homework, and talking about our plans after all of this settles.
What activities were you most looking forward to this year that have either been postponed or canceled? Prom, graduation ceremony, etc.
There were a few school events that I was really looking forward to taking part in that have been canceled, such as our yearly talent show where our a-cappella club was scheduled to perform. Also, it seems right now, our graduation is not going to take place offline as planned, and the same for proms and other celebratory events that would involve mass congregation. I was really looking forward to some of these celebrations, especially the graduation.
Has COVID-19 affected your ability to graduate at all?
I wouldn’t say that the virus has affected my ability to graduate, but it definitely has affected a lot of the procedures preceding the completion of our high school that was previously there. Our IB May exam was canceled, and we will also not be assessed internally in our school, leaving us with technically no high school exit exams to be taken. Now it is really up to us to remain on course for the final bits of our senior year studies.
Has COVID-19 affected your plans for after graduation? If so, how? Were you planning on going abroad for college? Doing a bit of traveling during the Summer? Etc.
A few friends of mine and I have been planning graduation trips to places like Japan or Singapore, but now it looks like those plans will either have to be forfeited or have a location switch to somewhere more local. Also, my plans for traveling to the US for college are getting complicated, as the procedure to obtain a visa is getting more difficult, and so are the actual traveling logistics to the US, as it gets more and more severely impacted by the crisis.
Despite all that has happened this year, have you done anything to try and salvage these last few months of your High School experience? Have you and your friends been able to “hang out” on Zoom or FaceTime? Have you made backup plans for a Prom in case it gets officially canceled?
Well for me, the time that I’ve spent online chatting with my friends has drastically increased as I very much miss them. I’ve also regularly voice- and video-chatted with some of my closest friends to stay in touch as much as I can.
And, I have in fact been talking with a lot of my friends about organizing an unofficial graduation with prom for our grade at a later date when everything settles a bit more. Any events in replacement will be good enough for me honestly.
Is there anything else you’d like to include that hasn’t been asked?
Wish everyone stays safe and sound!
Photos: Courtesy of George G.
