Remembering the Notre Dame Class of 2020

Through the help of the COVID-19 crisis, graduating seniors across the country might not be remembered for their outstanding achievements or class bonds, but the fact that one of the best years of their life was so easily cut short.

But is that how we should remember them?

As a graduating senior from Notre Dame Regional High School's class of 2020, I'm here to say that this is wrong. My class should not be remembered for an event that we could not control, but for the energy, passion, love and friendship that we brought into the walls of Notre Dame.

We should be remembered for being the "loud and proud" class of 2020 who could always be heard during sports games and assemblies. We should be remembered as the class that lost a dear friend but came together to celebrate his life and helped each other pick up the pieces. We should be remembered as quite possibly the only class in school's history that has broken the bleachers from sheer cheering force alone.

There are so many fond memories that live with each and every graduating senior at ND, and so many outstanding accomplishments that we young people have accomplished in our four years of high school. Remember us for the hard work that we put into our studies or the amount of times we've marched our way to a state championship. Appreciate the people that we have become; do not focus on how we might have ended up had this disease not happened.

But perhaps more importantly, remember the Notre Dame class of 2020 as a group of students that loved each other, their teachers, their families and their school. I know with great certainty that my class' journey does not end here, just as I know we will go on to accomplish amazing things with the strength of all of our classmates and friends.

So do not remember the Notre Dame graduating class of 2020 as what could have been, but as what we are becoming and the legacy that we left behind.