Dear COVID-19,

F*ck you. I know we've all said at one point or another that we want school to be over, but this isn't what we meant by that. You were the perfect cure to senioritis. The students who never wanted to be at school, are finally dying to wake up at 7:00am to be there on time. Senior year was supposed to be the final year we all got to spend together before going our separate ways. If I had known my last day of high school was that Friday we got the email of school shutting down, I would have cherished every moment a little more. I will never see some of my fellow students ever again, and I'm not okay with that.

Thanks to you, I will never again scramble to grab all of my stuff and rush out my front door as I get the "here" text from my friend at 7:30 every morning.

Thanks to you, I will never again drive to school with my best friends, while we talk about our weird dreams, or activities we have in the upcoming week.

Thanks to you, I will never again crack jokes with my desk mates about how our teacher says "kay" and "umm" 70 times in first period Gov and Econ.

Thanks to you, I will never again laugh with my seat partner about how it was so obvious the girl sitting in front of us was helping the boy she liked cheat on almost every test in second period sports med.

Thanks to you, I will never again help plan school wide activities and events in third period class council.

Thanks to you, I will never again be seat partners with my best friend, while our teacher tells us funny stories about her family in fourth period English.

Thanks to you, I will never again spend my lunch gossiping, cracking jokes, catching up on homework, and laughing uncontrollably with my favorite people in the world.

Thanks to you, I will never again get to sit with all of my friends, and laugh about how completely and utterly confused we were about everything our 900 year old teacher said in fifth period probability and statistics.

Thanks to you, I will never again get to wait outside of my friends class so we can walk to the track together and ask each other about how our days went.

Thanks to you, I will never again run 6 to 8 miles along side my best friends everyday laughing at random things, and talking about how tired we are in sixth period track and field.

Thanks to you, I will never again feel that pre-race anxiety and take that final deep breath before the gun goes off for my favorite race, only to experience the greatest feeling in the world when I cross the line and look at my finishing time at track meets.

Thanks to you, I will never again scream my lungs out while I watch my teammates run their races, and hit new personal records.

Thanks to you, I have worked my ass off for the past 12 years only to not hear my name called for all of my family and friends to hear at graduation.

You've taken away so much from me. So many things I will never get to experience ever again.

Some people may say the class of 2020 is over exaggerating and being over dramatic about how this virus has effected us. But they don't understand. We will never again get to represent our school as we compete in the pool, on the court, on the track, and on the field. Our final season was stripped from us. Senior year was supposed to be about class unity, and being together for the last moments of our high school lives, and we can't do that if we aren't allowed to leave our homes anymore. We're missing our final dance at prom, our final pep rally, class competition, sporting events and our final goodbye's to the school we've come to know the past four years.

We don't get to experience the senior year all of the classes before us got to experience, and the senior year the ones after us will get to. We're missing out on so many wonderful things, all thanks to you.

You took my senior year away from me, and I know I can't get it back.

Sincerely,

A 2020 high school senior