Dear COVID-19,

   What…the actual…heck?

   You’ve somehow managed to effectively bring out both the best and the worst in this country.  We’ve seen many highs and lows in the behavior of our fellow man throughout these trying times.  Fortunately for my faith in humanity, there are a lot more highs.  Unfortunately, the lows are pretty low.  And I mean low.

   I’m getting real hall monitor vibes from you.  You’re just going to pick us off one-by-one until we stop acting stupid, is that it?  Because if that’s the case, I can assure you, we as a species, mainly of the American variety, are never going to stop acting stupid.  What are you trying to prove, man?  Is this humanity’s punishment?  If it is, please tell me this is it, because I don’t even want to know what stage two would be.

   You don’t even have a cool name.  If the Earth is going to be infected with a virus, it could at least have a more dramatic name, like the Black Death.  Now that’s a name!  COVID-19, or “coronavirus.”  Pfft. You can do better than that.  It’s not even catchy.

   You have, however, given me some time to do some of my own personal experiments.  For example, I’ve discovered that, given more free time, I will in fact not be any more productive  than I was during my normal schedule.  In my findings, I’ve also discovered that the average human, myself included, if given the chance, will never wear pants with buttons.

   Don’t get me wrong, Rona.  I have no hard feelings nor ill will towards you, nor whatever bat you came from.  You as a virus are just doing what you have to to survive.  I respect the hustle.  I do, however, bear some ill will with the people who have carelessly allowed you to spread, causing many innocent lives to be taken, some that I knew personally.  You know, some people still don’t believe you exist.  We call these people idiots.  Also, don’t think that just because you have all this publicity, people care about you.  There are many people who think the economy is more important.  You know who doesn’t think the economy is more important?  There’s a least a few tens of thousands of people and their families who don’t.  The economy becomes a little less important once you’re dead.

   I know this is dark.  I know that this is probably a little hard to hear.  But some things need to be said, before that reality becomes a lot darker.

   Insincerely, Emma Santos ‘22

Dear COVID-19,

   I should be saying, “You’re awful. You have been doing nothing but scaring the world and driving those who hate being at home crazy,” and truth be told, you have! You have been making me miss my friends and you took away the rest of my senior year. Senior week, gone. Prom, gone. All the activities that our school had planned for us, GONE! Maybe even our graduation, gone. What, are we supposed to get our high school diploma in the mail? I was looking forward to the day I would walk that stage and now I’m not so sure how that’s going to work. Not to mention online school has me even more confused than real life school. Though I’m really angry about everything being taken away from my hands, I can see the good side to this. Maybe this is a way of the world telling us to take a step back and to calm down. Maybe this entire virus is helping us realize we need to take care of ourselves more. As infuriated as I am with this pandemic, I have been able to take care of myself more. I am lucky where I have tools such as Google Duo to keep in contact with my friends, I have been doing a lot of creative writing and practicing more music then I would have ever had time for. Though this isn’t the ideal situation for someone as ambiverted as I am, who needs her alone time yet has to have human interaction otherwise she goes slightly insane, I have learned to cope in a way where I can get the best of both worlds while still in the comfort of my home. As much as I don’t want to say this, thank you Covid-19 for teaching me to stay calm under a hard situation, self care which was hard for me to balance with all the stress from school in the first place, and to be patient. With a little time, there will be an end to all of this. Though we won’t know if the world will go back to normal, I hope that this teaches everybody to be a little kinder to each other.

   Sincerely, Abigail Durham ‘20

Dear COVID-19,

     At first I didn’t think you would ever get this serious. I never would have thought you were going to impact the world like this and have people stuck in their homes around the world. I never thought that this many people would die from you. I really hope we beat you and can go back to our normal lives.I have been feeling really down lately, nothing shows that we are  drastically improving and able to go back to normal. Doing the same thing over again everyday is getting boring. I honestly wish I didn’t take the outside world and being with friends and being able to go places for granted. I am currently trying to learn new hobbies. I am starting to draw a lot but I am not good at it and I started reading a book but stopped reading it because I didn’t like it. I’m taking care of my family watching my little sister.Watching a lot of movies/shows and playing some video games here and there. Listening to a lot of music: Lil Baby, Quando Rondo and NBA Youngboy. Counting the days until we reopen and we all can go back to a kind of normal life.

   Sincerely, Bernard Platel ‘21

Dear COVID-19,

   You have made the last year of my high school career a memorable one for sure. The usual cheer that surrounds a Senior leaving a high school has now been filled with endless boredom from the scenic view of my home. I face the same walls that I do every day and pretend as if it’s some kind of normal, things aren’t normal anymore and I don’t think they will be the same kind of normal again. The events that were lined up for the year were cancelled as you wore on, breaking down the world. The 2020 Senior Class has been left to pick up the pieces of the year and attempt to create something even more memorable than you. We are trying to make the most out of the oddity the year has become with things like a Drive In Graduation, Adopt a Senior and even free goodies to commemorate the graduating class. It’s bittersweet to be ending the year in such a way but there’s still plenty of time to come back together and host something more official. 

   I never thought my senior year would be ending this way. I never thought I’d see a virus hold me back from all the memories I always dreamed of making my senior year. It’s tough to be going through but we will come out more resilient because of this. 

   Sincerely, Brooke Stover ‘20