“Dear Class of 2020.

This sucks.

And even if you hated everything about high school. This still sucks.

We lost our last sports seasons, our last choir, orchestra and band concerts.

Our last theater productions.

Our last days in the classroom.

We left our school without saying goodbye.

So I’m here to say that even if everything else in the world seems a lot more chaotic right now, it’s okay to feel sad,” senior Sara Sprague said.

“And to the spring sports athletes: I know it is never easy to say goodbye to someone you love, someone who has never failed to support you through the good and the bad. Someone who is unrelenting in their goal to make you the very best version of yourself, the one constant in your life.

The person or place you go to when you seek comfort or an escape from reality.

For many of us, sports have been that figure for as long as we can remember.

For others, athletics have placed these people in our lives in the form our closest friends. Now I would love to tell you that this isn’t goodbye. That there’s something else coming around the corner. But For the majority of us, that isn’t the reality we live in.

And it hurts because it was so sudden, because we had no warning it was the end,

No warning it was our last swing, or our last shot or our last time crossing the finish line.

And I guess I’m here to tell you that sometimes saying goodbye is what needs to be done.

Sometimes moving forward is the only direction to take.

We take the skills and trades we learned and gained as athletes and translate them to the next chapters in our life. We cherish the friends we had and are enticed at the idea of making new ones. We dominate whatever pathway we take next just like we dominated the courts and fields and pools, because that is all we know how to do.

And ultimately, we never forget where we came from. We never forget who we were and what we stood for. We never forget our defeats, and we most certainly will always remember our victories,” senior Logan Oyama said.

“Looking back on everything we’ve accomplished over the years is honestly really cool. I’ve seen some really captivating plays, some gut-wrenching and exciting sporting events. I’ve seen people so happy at club meetings and I’ve honestly seen a lot of joy on people’s faces just standing outside the gym after school.

High school has made us all feel some of the most intense highs and lows, ever. We’ve just experienced heartache and pain, and all of the feelings, a lot. I feel like a lot more than other classes have, which has been really weird.

But that is honestly what sets up apart from other classes; we’re strong, we’re resilient we’re steadfast. We’re really just in it to win it and I feel like we’re honestly all in this together.

We still have so much to be proud of though, and I know it seems like just the end of the line and our high school experiences were cut short. But if there was one group of kids that could deal with this, I 100 percent think that it would be us. So, I hope that everybody’s proud,” Lauren Ormiston said.

“Prom starts getting planned a year in advance. And it’s a big, big deal at our school because it’s specifically for seniors. So as sophomores and juniors just thinking about prom and waiting for it and just imagining how magical that night is going to be—one last big event with all of your friends before we graduate—and not having it anymore, is pretty sad because it’s one thing that does get us ready to move on from high school,” Kaelee Huetten said.

“So, hello class of 2020, and whoever else is watching this right now.

 As much as the memories that we made over the course of high school deserve to be recognized and celebrated, at the end of this, we also have the rest of our lives ahead of us, you know. There’s so many more chances we have in college or work or family life, to make those meaningful connections and memories and relationships with each other. That being said that doesn’t diminish the fact that the situation we’re in right now…it sucks not having graduation, the chances to say goodbye to a lot of the friends and teachers that we’ve spent a lot of our time with, and it hurts. I would say make the most of the situation that we are in; there’s no denying the fact that this sucks. And just because we aren’t getting the chance to be recognized and celebrated now doesn’t diminish the fact that the things that you’ve been doing over the course of the last couple of years, the last 13 years are important. They’ve helped you become the person that you are today. That’s a really powerful thing.

But I’m very proud of all of us for the way that we’ve handled this, and I’m really excited to see what all of you do in the future,” Charlie Schoos said.

“Hey, Class of 2020. Hope you guys are doing well with the shutdown and everything. We’re gonna miss out on some of the biggest things from our senior year, like prom and graduation. But just because we won’t be able to celebrate in person together, does not mean that we aren’t taking the next steps into our future. We’re still crossing the finish line. But our finish line just looks a little bit different than everybody else’s. And this time, many of us have found ourselves sad and depressed that we will not be able to receive our diplomas, or walk across the stage to get it. But don’t let that stop us from moving forward. This time will not break us. It will only make us stronger. It’ll help us value the hard work of the journey and value even more when others can see that …you guys are staying strong and we’re all in this together,” Dylan Roof said.

“Class of 2020. This sucks. And this is allowed to suck. And it’s supposed to suck. But At least we have each other to get through this,” Sprague said.