By Anton Dedvukaj
The 2019-2020 school year is officially winding down. This, at least to me, seems a bit weird. No preparation for exams, no Regents exams, no last day of classes where we get to sign yearbooks and see all our friends one last time before a really fun summer. For some, no summer camp nor vacations to look forward to. It all seems rather strange. June is usually a happy time in the school year, our eyes fixated on the calendar, counting down the days until the end of the year. But in our current situation, what difference will June 16th really make?
On the 16th, school will end and distance learning will finally cease. But in reality, I consider the real last day of school to be March 12th. This was the day before COVID-19 ended school for good. We were all looking forward to a three-day weekend, and some, including myself, expected to go back to school on that Monday. We knew the possibility of closure was looming over our heads, but we didn’t think that school as we knew it would end on that day. And yet, when we got the phone call for the first major school closure related to coronavirus that was when the permanent closure of IHS for the rest of the year seemed inevitable. And sure enough, this is what happened.
At first it seemed like awesome news — no more exams or waking up at seven every morning to drag myself to school. It seemed like a dream come true. I probably would have chosen to take part in this quarantine in a heartbeat, not at all knowing what I got myself into. Because in the end, this isn’t what I wanted, and I’m sure it’s not what the majority of IHS students and staff wanted either.
However, with the school year winding down, I’d like for you to try to go back to September 3, 2019. I realize that this may be hard, given that just nine short months ago feels like a decade and a half due to how different things were, but still, I invite you to look back on your first day of school this year. For me, I was excited to begin my first year of high school, see my friends, and meet my teachers. I looked forward to taking on the challenges of high school and learning more about myself through my experiences. And most of all, I looked forward to all the events that would take place at IHS.
And there were definitely a lot of events worth looking forward to. Whether it be the two plays that were performed by the drama club, the winter concerts, the many sports games, or maybe some other events that were not school related, this school year promised a lot and delivered on the majority of those promises as well. It’s easy to forget that we were still in school for about six-and-a-half months, enough time for plenty of things to happen.
Still, the global pandemic cancelled a lot of other things that were supposed to take place, as sports seasons got cancelled and teachers scrambled to find new ways to help their students learn. We have had virtual classes on Google Meets for the past few months, and we even had a virtual Spirit Week and an online presentation of the Irvies.
I think I speak for everyone reading when I say that this school year was most certainly not what we expected. I fully expected to arrive in school at the end of June, see friends, maybe go out for pizza in celebration of finishing freshman year, and look forward to a summer where I could make lasting memories with my family. However, this isn’t what we got. And, truth be told, I highly doubt school will be completely normal again for a very long time.
But in the end, though, I wouldn’t consider this a bad school year. This school year was not anything like we all expected, but despite the pandemic that ended the school year three months early, this year still managed to provide students with some positive memories to carry with them into the uncertain future.
