The Interlude

The COVID-19 pandemic heavily disrupted the lives of students across the globe. After nearly 18 months of enduring online learning and separation from peers, experts posit that students are, and will be for the foreseeable future, dealing with mental health issues and trauma symptoms such as increased anxiety, trouble sleeping, and substance abuse. 

For students who were set to graduate during the pandemic, there’s an extra layer of loss. The class of 2020 never got to walk across their graduation stage. The class of 2021 missed out on their senior year. And while the class of 2022 gets both, they are entering their final year of high school or college after completing only one full term of in-person schooling: freshman year. 

This year’s high school seniors were at the tail-end of their sophomore years when the United States shut down due to the coronavirus. At the time, they still could look forward to the potential of the classic high school experience: football games, school clubs, and prom. But as the pandemic worsened and the U.S. response continued to lack effectiveness, millions of students were stuck learning remotely through the 2020-2021 academic year. 

For high school senior Annalia, 17, doing junior year entirely online was difficult. She had been excited about becoming an upperclassman, but staying home meant missing out on typical school activities that defined that experience. 

“I have a lot of just incredible teachers, but being online really took away from their classes,” Annalia said. “And it was just hard because they’d be like, ‘Oh, in normal years, we would be doing this group project right now. But instead, you guys are going to be on a website,’ or something.”

Academically, returning to in-person learning for the 2021-2022 academic year felt like turning on a different part of her brain for the first time since March 2020. Getting used to waking up early and adjusting to a new workload was completely different, she said.

“It is definitely something that I feel like initially kind of hit me like a school bus,” Annalia said. “Because, you know, I have not been in-person since my sophomore year of high school. And then I walked back into the building as a senior — the oldest class — hadn’t seen all of these people since my sophomore year, which was really odd.”

High school senior Sophie, 17, said she also feels like she’s still a freshman. As a dual-enrollment student taking college classes online, she had been prepared to do at least part of her junior year online, but since her last normal year of high school was her freshman year,  she doesn’t quite feel like a senior.

“I downloaded Common App the other day, and I was looking at it, and I was like, ‘I’m almost 18,’” Sophie said. “It’s very weird just because the past year and a half has been spent indoors. It wasn’t really getting older and [having] new experiences — it was just sitting inside and waiting.”

Bella, 17, also completed her junior year of high school online. It wasn’t just the ordinary pressure of junior year, with AP classes, the SAT, and extracurriculars, that was stressful — having to stare at a screen for hours and hours at a time was mentally exhausting. She thinks there’s an immense amount of pressure on the class of 2022, as they’ve lost almost half of their high school years and now have to navigate a newly changed college admissions process.

“We hardly know what we are doing, and we’re faced with the constant question of whether or not we’re doing enough,” Bella said via text message. “And now more than ever, colleges being test optional means even more applicants, so we are rushing to try and make ourselves stand out in a rigorous process that seems designed to stamp out our individuality. It feels like we have to do everything in a world where we can hardly do anything.”

As high school seniors face the upcoming college application process, many college seniors are gearing up to apply for their first full-time jobs or graduate programs while returning to their campuses for the first time in more than a year. For them, missing out on what is often touted as “the best four years” of their lives has made the transition to quasi-normalcy somewhat jolting. 

Anushka Yadava, a senior at Hendrix College, said she feels just as uneasy on campus as freshmen do. She lived on campus during her junior year, but she primarily stayed in her apartment with her roommate, venturing out only for a few classes. 

She explained that because Hendrix is a small school, many social circles include people from different years. As older friends graduated and the pandemic largely prevented her from seeking out new ones, navigating the social realm has been difficult.

“You hear so much about the social aspect of college and how it’s supposed to be, you know, one of the best times of your life and you’re supposed to have so much fun.” Yadava said. “And I feel like we were totally, you know, stripped of that due to COVID…I don’t feel like I’m a senior. I don’t feel like I’m about to be done with college.” 

Yadava is a biochemistry and molecular biology major on the pre-med track. Before the pandemic, she planned to apply to medical school right after college. Now she wants to take a gap year. Yadava said she wants to travel after not being able to for more than a year and she hopes to teach English in Spain. 

“I think I’ve never talked to so many premed people who’ve been like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to take a gap year because we all, we haven’t really been exposed to the right experiences to feel like we’re prepared, you know,” Yadava said. “Lots of travel opportunities were taken away, which really sucks. And that’s primarily why I’m going to be taking a gap year.”

The class of 2022 also faces the daunting task of navigating the pandemic’s job market. Some, like Georgia State University senior Ariel Walter, are trying to look on the bright side of the situation.

“One good thing about it is that getting internships or looking for jobs, it’s kind of broader because now you have like a whole new branch of internships and jobs you can get that are remote,” Walter said. “So if I wanted to have an internship in California, I could still be here with the internship being remote, if that makes sense.”

Others, like Georgia Institute of Technology senior Aurian Fassih, have had a more difficult time with the pandemic’s job market because they have to navigate it nearly entirely online. He said he felt disconnected when preparing to get a job because it’s been challenging to reach out to people. 

“There was a online career fair, in fall of 2020, you know, for trying to get internships, and it was just very unnatural,” Fassih said. “It didn’t feel very comfortable to me to just talk to someone on Google Voice chat, about, you know, being interested in interning somewhere or getting a job somewhere. So it’s been a bit of a new process, for me at least, just because I was used to talking to people in person, getting interviewed in person.”

Despite missing nearly half of high school or college so far, the class of 2022 is still hoping to make the most out of their senior year. Annalia said she’s looking forward to going to football games and performing on stage with her friends again. And, of course, she’s excited for one of the most anticipated high school experiences.

“I’m so excited for prom,” Annalia said. “I went my freshman year, and I really thought I was going to get to go all four years, but then obviously, this happened. So I’m really excited for prom.”

Fassih is also hoping to catch up on the fun parts of college he missed out on. He wants to make the most out of his senior year by joining the clubs he was interested in before the pandemic — like his school’s radio station. Fassih was training to do shifts his sophomore year before the pandemic happened, and he now has to essentially start over.

“I’ve already reached out and I’m l going back to be a part of the radio as soon as I can, just because there are a lot of opportunities like that that I missed from being remote,” Fassih said. “So I want to seize as much as I can before I do graduate, which is pretty soon.”

Editor’s Note: This article identifies minors solely by first name for their protection.