Well, Class of 2021, we have made it. After having a tornado on the last day of seventh grade, watching many crazy students come and go in middle school, surviving a couple shooting threats, watching many freshman fight club videos, and dealing with life and school through a global pandemic, we somehow managed to make it to our last few days of high school. In a very short time, we will be turning our tassels and moving on to better things in life.
Through our crazy times in the Fargo Public Schools, it’s safe to say we have learned a lot in these past twelve years beyond the formulas and information adults have tried to ingrain into our brains. With all that we went through and are currently still going through, it may be difficult to see any good out of our unique end to high school, but this Covid Era has taught us many valuable lessons we will use throughout our life. I will share a few that I know I will take with me into college and beyond.
Number 1: True friends will always be there for you. When we were in and out of quarantines and lock downs, it was much harder to hang out with everyone you were used to seeing on a normal school day or weekend. During that year without normal school, the real ones were there making an effort to go on walks or bike rides or Facetime and play virtual games. With true friends, you never have to worry about losing them, because they are always there and make sure you know that. I think a lot of us lost some “friends” during the pandemic, because when you couldn’t hang out with everyone, you had to make the time for the ones you truly cared about.
Number 2: You can learn how to do anything well if you put in the time and effort. We had LOTS of time to waste from March 2020-August 2020, since none of our usual activities were keeping us busy. Many took this time to learn new hobbies or try something new, such as baking, longboarding, writing, learning a new instrument, etc. Personally, I was very bad at the ukulele until quarantine, and now I can play almost any song if I am given the chords. It does not take long to try new things and excel at them if you just allow yourself some time to learn it. This will be harder to do once life is fully back to normal, but I’m sure if you’re passionate enough about learning something new, you will find the time to make it work.
Number 3: It may feel like the world is ending, but it will get better. With the pandemic, it literally felt like the world was ending. School was shut down, we had no activities, and the majority of the summer got ‘canceled’ too. Everyone was so depressed, and I found it very difficult to look forward to anything. Then I was quarantined at my cabin for the summer, because my summer job was canceled, and actually had quite a fun summer with my lake neighbors and family members. When school started, I still had so much time with only going to school 2-3 days a week, so I got a job and enjoyed working. With everything that seemed so bad, something good came later on. It’s nearly impossible for life to eternally be depressing and painful; we just always have to look forward to the good that is coming soon.
Though the pandemic was/is an awful event in our lives, there are some good things that came out of it if you really think about this past year and a half. Our class has experienced a lot of interesting situations in our K-12 years, and with that has taught us even more lessons than I have the space to list and write about.
Even though it may feel so important now, in the long run, these past 13 years of our life will be just a snapshot of what we will have accomplished. Beyond high school and this pandemic, there is so much more to see and do. We just have to keep turning the pages of life and seeing what crazy things are in store next.