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Because of What We’ve Lost

My name is Rocky Mayer and I’m a senior at Daniel Hand High School in Madison. I’m writing this letter to talk a little bit about what it’s like being a senior during the coronavirus pandemic.

Starting last spring, my class began to lose some of the things that make high school as fun as it is. We couldn’t have our junior prom, we couldn’t compete in any spring sports, and we couldn’t even go to school. I began to realize just how important the simple day-to-day conversations I shared with people were to me. Now with the quarantine continuing into our senior year, we’re missing out on even more. No real senior picnic, Nite in Hand is going to look completely different, and the likelihood of prom happening is very low. While all of that is bad, the worst part is that I’m not even getting a chance to be the captain of the wrestling team.

After all that we have lost, it’s hard to enjoy what’s just a shell of a real senior year, but it’s because of what we have lost that I have realized how incredible all the little things about school are. The simple conversations, seeing teachers, going to wrestling meets, and playing football games.

While we’ve lost a lot, the senior class is becoming better for it. We are learning about the difficulties of life, and how to handle hardship at a young age, and we will only ever be better for it. But now that we have been through what we have, and have grown from it, I just want my senior year back. I want to have those special days and have those conversations with the friends I haven’t seen in months. I want to have the senior year I never will.

Rocky Mayer

Madison