Dear Seniors, 

Right now, times are tough. It feels as though the ground is falling out from beneath our feet. Our normalcy has been disrupted. Our days are all blurring together as one. Our world, as we know it, has been flipped upside down. 

We are all feeling a little hopeless. We are all feeling a tiny bit unsettled. We are all searching for some sort of direction to help us find our way out of this mess. But unfortunately, no direction has been given. 

That’s because there is no direction. I know, that’s both frustrating and frightening to hear, but it’s the truth. This is our reality. All we can do is wait – wait for this to be over; wait for all of us to come together again; wait for the better days that lie ahead. 

We already have been waiting for a while, and it seems as though we will be waiting for a while more. But what about our senior year? The “best year” out of all four highschool years? The year we’ve been anticipating since our first day as freshmen. The year that we were told by many would be the “year you’ll never forget.” 

Suddenly, this seems like a year we want to forget. Why us? Why don’t we get to enjoy the entirety that senior year has to offer like everyone else before us? Why is this happening?

I wish I had the answers to these questions. But like the rest of you, I don’t. It’s truthfully heartbreaking to acknowledge that we may not get to finish this school year how we had always imagined. We are allowed to be upset; this situation is one we never thought we’d be in the midst of. We have all worked extremely hard throughout our high school careers, and it’s safe to say that these last four years have shaped us into the individuals we are today.

But as I continued to spend days at home, I began to wonder, “what was the point?” I started to feel like everything I had accomplished was slowly starting to lose value. It felt like everything I had put my all into didn’t really mean much anymore. Everything honestly just seemed pointless. I’m sure many of you can relate. That’s because when times are uncertain, we start to lose sight of hope. And as of right now, we are most definitely in uncertain times.

But we can’t lose hope. One of my teachers shared a very inspirational quote with me this week:

“Hope sees the invisible, touches the intangible and reaches the impossible.” In a time of uncertainty, hope should be our best friend. Hope will help us through any challenge. Hope will help us reach the light at the end of the tunnel. Hope will allow us to achieve what may currently seem impossible.

I read this quote, and then I read it again, and then I read it a third time. This saying really touched me, so I’ve decided to share it in hopes that it will do the same for you. Sure, everything may seem like it is completely falling apart at this very moment, but if we have just a little bit of hope, we will get through this. Hope will give us the strength to push forward, to overcome this obstacle. Hope will most definitely guide us, but we must have it in order to rise up.

Nothing is pointless. Everything happens for a reason. Have a little hope, and everything will soon fall back into place. It may take some time before we return to what was once our normalcy; we must be patient. I promise, in time, hope will give us everything once again.

We have already come so far, it simply doesn’t make sense to give up now. We can do this. Better yet, we will do this. We just need to have some hope.

Love, 

A Fellow Senior

*Special thanks to Mr. Vavalle for sharing the quote with me and inspiring me to write this piece.