School is out for the summer: Looking back and looking forward

#TeenEssay

The conclusion of this academic year marks the end of students’ first full year learning in person. Since the 2018-2019 school year, when this year’s newly graduated seniors were in their first year of high school and graduating 8th graders were in the 5th grade. This past school year was second graders’ first full in-person year ever. This difference highlights just how long it has been since we could do things “normally”. The gap between then and now isn’t insurmountable. Coming back to the way we used to do things may not always have been easy, but for me and many others, the shift has been a welcome one.

It has been a strange year and been crazy in so many ways: a strange shift back to waking up early, managing busy schedules, and interacting with classmates. Students have traveled to school in the dark mornings of the winter and in the lighter ones of the spring. They have seen the record heat of last summer and the record rain of this spring. Some schools have had to temporarily go back online, and masking rules have changed throughout the year. It was a long year, and a short one at the same time.

Yet despite all this craziness, there were so many good things about this year. For the first time in three years, students were in classrooms for a full year. All three seasons of high school sports and activities completed a full season. The graduating senior classes could have the most normal graduation since the pandemic began. I am confident that as we head into this summer, we will continue to move forward, and I look forward, to the successes that next year will bring.

Happy summer, and good luck to the class of 2023!

Anna Janowski is a teen volunteer at the Beaverton City Library. Outside of school, she likes to read, write, play softball and the trumpet.