As the end of junior year rolls around, most juniors are reflecting on the past school year and gearing up for a fun summer, especially with the gradual loosening of the statewide closure caused by Covid-19.

Call me crazy, but I have been thinking ahead. With the end of such a crazy and irregular school year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, I can’t help but worry about what senior year will be like. 

With so many rumors floating around about the fall term, it’s hard not to overthink about it.

Will we be in school with no restrictions, completely normal? Will we have to wear masks all day? Will students be divided into groups and go to school at different times? Will we not even be in school, and have to continue remote learning through the first semester, or worse, the entire year?

Another worrying part about senior year is college applications. Because of the pandemic, we are mostly unable to visit potential colleges like we normally would have. Instead, we are confined to online research, which can feel as though it’s not enough to make a decision as large as college upon.

It’s overwhelming and sometimes disheartening to think about all the possibilities of what our senior year and the future could be like. It’s difficult not to fall into a “why me?” mindset: why did this have to happen now, at such a transitional period in my life?

Senior year is supposed to be fun. Yes, there is some work involved, like college applications and schoolwork, but it’s supposed to be one of the best years of high school, a time to be with friends and squeeze every last bit of fun out of high school that we possibly can.

I’m sure everyone in my grade can testify that we all just want to have a normal senior year. We want Friday night football games and homecoming, we want to play our school sports, we want to eat lunch in the cafeteria with our friends like normal, the list goes on.

Even with all this in mind, I’ve finally come to peace with my fears of an abnormal senior year.

The hard truth is that no matter how much we wish for a perfectly normal senior year, we can’t control it. It may sound a bit harsh, but we don’t have a choice.

We can’t control what the world gives us, but we can only control how we respond. To save ourselves trouble, I think it’s better to just accept that our senior year will be different than it would be, and try to make the most of the time we have.

It helps to keep in mind that the class of 2021 across the country, even the world, is all going through the same confusion and worries about senior year.

I’m certain that whatever happens with the next school year, however weird or crazy it is, all of us North Allegheny rising seniors will adapt to it and thrive. We’re tiger-strong.