When COVID reached Japan in January 2020, I didn’t think much of it. I imagined that this would just be one of those “flu” moments where it’ll spike for a bit but eventually die down after a couple weeks. I was completely wrong about this. Days turned into weeks, which then turned into months, and now over a year.
I still remember the last day I was at school. It was the last day before spring break and we all believed that we would be able to see each other again after the break, but in the back of our minds, everyone had the feeling that it wouldn’t go as planned. I remember tears rolling down my friend’s face, saddened that this may be the last time we can all be together at the school hallway.
We packed all our belongings and that was our last hour-long bus ride home with close friends besides me. It was during spring break when we were informed that school would go online. But we wouldn’t know for how long. Online learning started and all of us, students and teachers, believed that this would soon end. Unfortunately online learning continued for the rest of the year.
We as seniors missed out on many of the traditional activities we had at the school. These traditions are what almost every senior looked forward to. The senior walk, the senior trek, the senior trip. All of these activities that would’ve made so many lasting memories, lost due to COVID. The graduation ceremony is also one tradition that we missed out on. The graduation ceremony is one of the most humbling and proudest moments for any student but we were unable to experience that euphoria everyone else experienced years before.
Although it was a tough year for us, we were, and still are, looking towards the light at the end of the tunnel. We were able to look for other alternatives we could enjoy as graduates. We were able to experience moments that we wouldn’t have been able to experience if it wasn’t for the situation we were in. Things did not go the way we hoped it would, but still we were able to make the best out of the moment that was given to us.