Graduation season is here again—and for the second year in a row local, graduates aren’t getting the senior year they desired or deserved.
The last two years have been rough for local teens. The Citizen spoke with three members of the class of 2021 to learn more about the specific ways in which COVID-19 has affected their lives.
“I think the year, even if it hasn’t looked eventful due to not being able to go out and do things, emotionally it was very eventful,” says Kierra Derksen, a graduate from Niverville High School. “They told us we would be online, and the best word to describe it was ‘sucky.’ We couldn’t see our friends or our peers. Online, you can’t hear the laughter and the little conversations. It’s eerie, just dead silence and icons on a screen.”
Hayden Fast, another graduate of Niverville High School, has also struggled with many aspects of remote learning.
“I struggled a lot with the online aspects for those courses that are hands-on,” says Fast. “Applied math was a challenge online. Trying to ask questions over 20 other students online and in class was a nightmare. It’s also hard when you haven’t seen half of your friends for a whole year. You’re cut off from half of your family basically, which is tough.”
Navigating their way through a complicated and confusing senior year has been a heavy burden for these students. Throughout the year, their schedules have switched between full remote learning and partial in-person classes, sometimes attending just two days a week.
As tough as the online learning has been, though, the greatest loss—one which can never be recovered—is not being able to have the usual Grade Twelve “experience.”
Aurora Begalke, a senior in high school at École Heritage Immersion in St. Pierre-Jolys, says that this year’s entire graduating class has to mourn not getting to partake in the same experiences any other year’s graduates would usually take for granted.
“This year the graduating class has lost every senior experience because of the pandemic,” says Begalke. “Normally our school has lots of activities for the seniors as final celebrations for finishing 13 years of school. As a graduating class, we haven’t been able to enjoy a single experience this year because of the fact that everything has been taken from us. At my high school, normally the entire high school is at school and the seniors rule over the school. There is even a table that is the Grade Twelves’ designated spot. It may sound a little foolish to mourn the loss of a table, but my class has waited three years to be able to have this table.”
The senior table isn’t the only ritual this year’s class has to miss out on, she adds.
“In normal life, our school has Grade Wars, which encourage school spirit,” Begalke says. “We normally get a ski trip. We go camping at the end of the year for a celebration to mark the end of school. And the Grade Twelves’ would have a hiking trip, where we go hiking for a weekend.”
Alanna Dunn, a member of Niverville’s Parent Grad Committee, has a daughter graduating this year. She agrees that this year’s losses have been heavy.
“My heart goes out to these kids, who have missed out on so many ‘lasts’ in their young lives,” says Dunn. “Last band concerts, last time to play their favourite school team sport, last time to perform in their school drama production, last time to just hang out with their friends in class or on campus and make memories… Everything about school has been hard, even for those who are strong students academically!”
Fast has found the loss of athletics to be the most difficult.
“It was a rough year,” he says. “All sports came to a halt after five games or so, which ruined my year and a lot of other athletes’ years.”
The year, perhaps, is not a complete loss—although it takes some deep introspection to get to that point.
For example, Derksen has managed to find a positive aspect to her Grade Twelve experience.
“I got to know myself more,” says Derkson. “I got to grow stronger and find ways that work for me to do school, or ways to calm myself down when the world feels like absolute chaos.”
For his own part, Fast struggled to think of a positive. But eventually he was able to come up with one minor boon: “The only good thing I could think of is the fact that you could roll over, turn on your laptop, and do your class from your bed.”
As they reach the end of their high school careers, these young adults are now struggling not only with the loss of their senior year, but also the loss of a traditional grad celebration. The ceremony, the party, the laughter, the tears… they will all be missed. The amazing memories of school will be tainted by a lack of finality.
Sue Thompson is the head of the Parent Grad Committee at Niverville High School. She explains that the 2021 graduation will include a drive-in ceremony on Wednesday, June 23, for the graduates and their parents.
After the ceremony, there will be a parade. Thompson hopes that townspeople will make signs and cheer on the graduates along the route starting at around 7:30 p.m.
As far as having a full safe grad party, Thompson says that they have plans to move forward with one as soon as restrictions allow them to do so.
“We have been planning for quite some time now and are really excited to make this year’s party like no other year,” Thompson says.
The situation for Begalke at École Heritage Immersion is similar.
“Our convocation is going to look like a movie drive-in, where we are all sitting in our car as we watch each other accept our diplomas—and the only guests are our parents,” Begalke says. “We no longer get to have dinner where we dress up in our dresses and suits, and we no longer get to have a safe grad to end the night.”
Alanna Dunn can attest to how difficult it has been serving on a grad planning committee.
“Planning for graduation has been a series of stops and starts,” says Dunn. “As parents on the committee, we are planning with the hopes that we can have a group gathering at Whitetail Meadow at the end of the month, but we have watched the public gathering size allowance shrink instead of grow. What in past years has been a party with upwards of 250 people… well, the grad committee would be thrilled if we could at least plan for the grad group of just over 60 to have something, even without their friends and family included. We have collected fees from families in order to work with a budget, and have tentatively booked a photographer, a deejay etc., but still we wait to give them the go-ahead that we can proceed.”
Despite these many challenges, Dunn says that the grad committee has nonetheless received generous donations from dozens of members of the Niverville business community. Because of these donations, if they are able to have a party, there will be an online auction to raise funds for lawn signs and to offset other costs.
“This gives the grads something special—the ability to win prizes—and a little something to get excited about,” says Dunn. “It is simply a waiting game… and a very hard waiting game! We need to see that magic number for public gatherings move up to at least 60, which seems unlikely by the end of June. We have relayed to parents and grads that we will even look to have the party in July if we can, anything to offer some glimmer of hope that we can actually celebrate the way these kids deserve to be celebrated.”
The graduates and the Niverville Parent Grad Committee are extremely grateful to the three dozen local businesses that have donated monetary gifts, supplies for the party, and/or prizes for the auction.
“But there is a huge sadness in me that I won’t get one final goodbye party with my grade,” Derksen adds. “I’ve known most of these people for 12 or more years—and after this, it’s done. I may see them here and there, but we don’t get that proper goodbye that helps people have closure with high school and their peers around them.”
Still, the graduates of 2021, like any other year, have to contend with the reality that one can’t go backward. As ever, graduation is about moving forward into a new phase of life.
“I would say that during a time like this pandemic, it really makes you reflect on high school and cherish those good times, like being late to class because you and your friends were laughing so hard in the parking lot,” says Derksen. “Or even the bad times, such as not getting a great mark on a test that you studied so hard for. These memories, whether good or bad, made me into who I am today. So I am beyond grateful for my time in high school, and I’m excited to see what new memories will be made in the next chapter of my life.”
