I wrote this on behalf of my high school’s class of 2020:
I knew they would cancel school for the rest of the year, but it still doesn’t feel quite real. I will never get to be late to homeroom again, I will never get to fool around in class again, I will never get to stay after with my favorite teachers again, I will never get to high-five my friends in the hall in passing, I will never get to have a real last day.
It feels selfish to say this when people are dying, but I know the class of 2020 is hurting.
We entered the world in the shadow of 9/11.
We began elementary school as an economic recession took hold.
We graduated from elementary school after the Boston Marathon bombings.
We graduated from middle school at a time when our political climate was nothing but a battlefield.
We entered high school when school shootings continued to be a truly terrifying threat.
So it’s only fitting that we will leave behind an entire chapter of our lives in the middle of a worldwide pandemic.
Here’s to the class of 2020, everything we have accomplished, and everything we will achieve.
Madison Sherman
Framingham, Mass.
The writer is a senior at Framingham High School. This letter originally appeared in the New York Times.