This first semester has, for sure, been a whirlwind. It feels like junior year but with more responsibility and a part time job that consists of college and scholarship applications. As much as I have tried to keep my positive outlook on senior year that I boasted so cheerfully in August, the hope that I have is slimming by the week. It seems as more and more days pass, more and more opportunities get taken away.

These past few months have been hard. With quarantines, cancelled events, and no pep rallies, school hardly even feels like school, let alone senior year. Despite this, I’ve been trying to hold on to the little things. After all, it is the small moments that make memories worth holding on to. 

The little moments consist of sitting in the car having conversations before school. Opportunities in disguise, like getting to have lunch in a classroom so our whole friend group can sit together. Memories like laughing while running to get to class on time and joking about finishing up assignments last minute. 

I used to see those lost opportunities that we had been promised for so long as memories not made. Pep rallies not attended, dances cancelled, virtual school, virtual college visits – all things that should have been normal, things that should have kept consistency. One thing I have done this first semester is change my outlook. I have begun to see lost opportunities as opportunities to make different memories – memories that no other senior class has been able to create.  

This semester may have been long, hard, and much different than I expected my first semester of senior year, but it is one I will remember forever. These are the memories I will reflect on for years to come and I refuse to let a virus take away from the little moments that make up the memories.