Let’s Keep Covid out of our Senior Superlatives

Lets+Keep+Covid+out+of+our+Senior+Superlatives

Senior superlatives should not be covid-19 themed!

Covid has deeply impacted our time at Williston, but as a class, we are more than just the situation we were thrust into. I want the class of 2022 to be remembered for more than simply a global pandemic. The virus has affected everyone no matter their age, so why should we let it outshine our graduating year just as it did the class of 2020 and 2021?

Defining the class of 2022 by the global pandemic — and commemorating us that way in the yearbook — is degrading to all of our hard work and accomplishments.

I want our class legacy to be the centered around the resilient nature of every student who achieved greatness despite their circumstances, instead of simply a reminder of the hardships everyone faced this year. We should choose how to commemorate our time in high school, not the pandemic.

As a six-year senior with three older siblings, I’ve been flipping through Williston yearbooks since before I could read the captions. I have yearbooks from the year 2008 to the present, and my favorite thing is the superlative sections.

Superlatives are a way to recognize seniors who present or demonstrate a certain quality in an informal and usually humorous way. My personal favorites are “worst driver/most dangerous to pedestrians” (especially the picture), “most likely to be out of dress code,” and the “best best friends award.”

Last year, many aspects of the yearbook were made to be Zoom and Covid-related. For instance, seniors who didn’t submit a photo had a lettered background paralleling those on Zoom. Yet, the most evident change was many traditional and beloved superlatives being replaced by “most likely to have their camera off” or “most likely to be in their bed during class.”

Hearing the frustrated reactions from many seniors after Mr. Hill referred to this as “the pandemic year” in his cum laude ceremony speech, I realized we need to get the most normal high school experience we can, including reintroducing creative superlatives that don’t have to do with turning your screen on or off.

Sage Friedman, a senior day student who was inducted into cum laude, felt the statement was devaluing to all seniors’ accomplishments.

“Especially since the speech was geared towards people inducted into cum laude, it felt like the statement was saying that our work through the pandemic is what got us there instead of just our hard work!” they said.

So, should the graduating class of 2022 be remembered as just another pandemic year, or as the academic scholars, athletes, artists, and hard-working students we’ve become?

I suggest the class of 2022 representatives propose new superlatives unique to our year that do not mention Covid. This way, we can commemorate an aspect of our year that may remain a part of Williston after we leave, and every member of the senior class will be able to vote and therefore have input on the specific choice.

Covid-19 has already taken a year and a half of our lives, our loved ones, our freedom, and two-thirds of our faces, why should we let it steal our yearbook too?