A STORY UNFINISHED

By Brooke Bobbey

Imagine sitting through 12 seasons of a show you love. You connect with the characters and follow the plot religiously. Every week you wait for the next episode to air. This week is the final episode of the last season, where all the loose ends are wrapped up, and you finally get closure. However, just as it’s about to begin…the tv freezes. You sit there and wait, hoping that it will resume any second. After waiting nervously for a while, you find out that you will never get to see the last episode you’ve been waiting for.

This situation is very similar to the one seniors across the country found themselves in. We waited 12 years to get to our senior year and share our many lasts with the group of kids we grew up with. But just as we were nearing the end, it was cut short due to the global pandemic. We will never get the closure we were waiting all this time for. If last year you told me this is how my senior year would end, I would think it was a joke. It is mind-blowing that I had already experienced so many lasts without knowing it. I didn’t know last year would be the last time I would get to represent Poland Seminary High School on the softball field. I didn’t know I wouldn’t get to play alongside my best friends again or have a normal prom or graduation. No one could have prepared any of us for what was going to happen.

I couldn’t be more thankful for all the memories we were able to make up to this point. Over the last four years, I was privileged to get to know some of the most amazing friends, athletes, and teachers one could hope for. I was able to create lifelong friendships, play alongside great athletes, and be taught by amazing teachers and coaches. In the scope of things, my last four years of high school are what shaped me into the person I am today. All the hard work was done; these last three months were supposed to be the fun ones where all the loose ends are wrapped up. Unfortunately, because of the Coronavirus, it seems like we never got the closure we were waiting for. On March 12, we were asked to leave the building for the final time. We didn’t get to thank our teachers for everything they have done for us. We didn’t get to walk the halls for the last time or say goodbye to the kids we wouldn’t see in the summer. We never got to finish the story we started writing our freshman year.

Even though it seems like we are missing so much, we know why. Every day we look at a death tally on the news that continually increases, which is why Governor DeWine’s decision to remain online for the rest of the school year was widely accepted. Our loss in this situation is someone else’s gain. By not returning to school, we are aiding in a bigger cause. Thankfully, we are surrounded by so many incredible administrators and community members that are doing everything they can to make sure we end our senior year right. The Poland Community is so strong that they never fail to cater to those in need, and for that, I am blessed to be a bulldog.

Lastly, to the Class of 2020, I challenge you that as we write the end to our final chapter not to forget, we have a whole new one to create.

So I ask, “How will you begin your new chapter?”