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The Class of Coronavirus
Our teens need us right now. And we need them.
Remember your senior year? The very real feelings of excitement and possibility and nerves? Now, throw a pandemic on that.
Imagine: No prom. No senior trip. No graduation. These are just a few of the things the class of 2020 is facing with the onset of Covid-19.
There are a lot of horrible aspects to coronavirus, from the loss of life to the suffering of those with the illness, from the stresses of quarantine to the economic impact we’re all facing. But this one’s for the kids. Specifically, the young adults who make up the class of 2020. These are the same kids who were born just after 9/11. The ones who came fresh into a world turned upside down before they even had a chance to get to know it. My daughter happens to be one of them.
She and her peers have already faced a high school experience unlike most others before them: school shootings, emergency drills, social media pressures, climate change, terrorism, teen suicide, and being forced to advocate for solutions to the issues their generation is facing — all while trying to navigate dating, friendships, tests, college prep, and an unseen future. These kids are stressed in ways I never was, and I’m only 17 years older than my daughter. Even as a teen mom who did miss out on prom and graduation and all the rest, I cannot directly relate to many of the situations my daughter faces.
But even in this new reality, kids hang on to classic high-school milestones. For my daughter, one of them was a senior-year band trip to Germany (a trip I spent four years paying off as a single mom). She’s been planning and daydreaming about it since before her freshman year even began.
Then Covid-19 reached our home state of Colorado.
On Monday, March 9, her school district understandably announced that all out-of-state and international school-sponsored trips would be canceled “out of an abundance of caution” — the catchphrase of the week. Naturally, this led to tears and disappointment.
I took her out to The Saucy Noodle in Denver — a local, old-school red sauce joint — for a serious dose of comfort food. We found other things to laugh about over chicken parm, garlic bread, and tiramisu, but…
