Senior Moments: Welcome to the Class of 2021

Greta Ripperda

Everyone from acquaintances to relatives likes to ask, "Hey, Greta, are you nervous about gearing up for college?" It's a question I've been hearing since August. To be completely honest, I don't have time to dwell on whether I'll receive rejection or acceptance letters. Between online classes, in-person classes and a pandemic, I keep forgetting to worry about what comes next. It's not that I haven't filled out any applications, because I have, and I worked harder than I ever thought I could. Of course I want to be accepted into college, but with everything going on right now, I can't waste time fretting about applications like graduating classes have in the past. I'm sure my peers would agree with me: we're too busy making history.

Being a senior in high school this year has been strange, to say the least. COVID-19 has thrown everyone's life off track, but in terms of what we're missing, high school students are being hit especially hard. Our parents, teachers and role models tell us these are going to be some of the best years of our youth, but almost everything we look forward to is either online, reorganized to the point of unrecognition or just outright cancelled. We don't get to celebrate our coming of age like every other class has so far, and many of our rites of passage have been done away with. So will you find us moping around, crying about what we can't have? Absolutely not. We're creating our own rites of passage.

When the administrators claim we can't have a homecoming or a graduation, we figure out how to reimagine the occasion to fit the climate. If the school board says we can't go back to school unless we wear our masks and social distance, we wear our masks and social distance. We're holding on to each other (from six feet away) as tightly as we possibly can. We're smiling (under our masks) as brightly as we know how. We're looking toward our mentors for advice, but we are grabbing this challenge with both hands, and I couldn't be prouder of us. We are going to be the class to implement new traditions and change the way high schools and high school students do things forever, and I, for one, think that's really cool.

However, my generation can't do this alone. Sure, we're young and energetic, but we're inexperienced. We don't know much about the world, so we need help as we try to change it. And we have to change, because we can't come out of this experience unaffected -- it's impossible. Instead, we all have to work together to make change for the better. We need guidance and acceptance. So I'm inviting everyone to join this year's graduating class with me. I'll be right here, once a month, representing my class and my peers, and in turn representing you to them. These are our best years, and we get to live them together.

Welcome to the Class of 2021. May we grow and prosper.

Greta Ripperda is a senior at Notre Dame Regional High School in Cape Girardeau. She is the firstborn of four and enjoys reading, hiking, spending time with family and making music.