The Senior Year That Wasn’t: Haerin L.

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Many of us would agree that our Senior year of High School was one of the most memorable years of our life. Between graduation, college acceptance letters, Prom, and the knowledge that it’s the last year spent in your hometown (and parents’ house no less), it’s a time that we both never want to end, and can’t get past soon enough. Unfortunately, for the class of 2020, most of these traditions were devastated by COVID-19. In this series, we chat with Seniors to find out the extent of the impact to their final year of High School and what they’ve done to salvage those memories.

Meet Haerin L., from South Korea who’s currently a senior at Beijing No. 55 High School International Students Section.

Can you briefly walk us through how COVID-19 has evolved for you, personally?

When COVID-19 was rapidly spreading in China, started from Wuhan, my mother and I decided to go to Korea earlier than we originally planned, as Korea had far fewer patients back then. Initially, in January, I thought COVID-19 would be a domestic problem so that by the end of the Winter vacation things would go normal again. However, in the second week of February, Korea experienced the outburst of COVID-19, and that was when I realized that the situation was becoming more serious than I expected. However, I still insisted on remaining in Korea as my school decided to apply online teaching skills using “tengxun jiaoyu” programs. I could not risk the possibility of infection from the airport. Furthermore, I thought it would be safer in Korea (at least I can stay with my parents) than in China, as both my parents could not go back to China due to their jobs.

Right now, I cannot go back to China though I really want to, as Korean airlines canceled all the flights for Beijing until April. Currently, I feel absolutely awful and lonely as I could not communicate with anyone, staying in my house all alone. But I’ve attempted to overcome these gloomy emotions by exercising and reading various books.

Senior year of High School is supposed to be one of the most memorable years of your life. Unfortunately, however, you and your peers aren’t getting to enjoy all that it has to offer. Can you tell us a bit about that? What are the conversations that are happening amongst your friends right now?

The saddest thing is that I lost my opportunity to see my classmates again. As our school is an international department, we often choose colleges located in different countries, often even in different continents. Some people go to the US, some people stay in China, some people go back to their own countries. It is obvious that our whole grade is not able to meet each other ever again after this year. That recognition made me sad. Our grade only has approximately 20 people and I’ve known most of them since I was in 8th grade. Regardless of our nationality, the whole grade is a whole big family. It feels like I do not get any chance to even properly say goodbye to my family. Nowadays, my friends and I often talk about how we are going to miss each other in college. We also often talk about the past. Since we’ve known each other since middle school, there’s a lot of memories to share. We talk about how we miss the time we share; not only big events like culture trips, but small, mundane things like getting school buses every morning together and going to McDonald’s together after class. I know I’m going to miss those tiny little activities.

What activities were you most looking forward to this year that have either been postponed or canceled?

I was looking forward to the graduation ceremony more than a Prom. Graduation ceremony feels like the proper ending for my high school era. Also, when I looked at my parents’ albums, they had a picture or two from their graduation ceremony. Whenever they found the picture, they started to remember every single detail from their high school, about their classes, friends and all the joyful events. Since my childhood, I thought it would be nice to have a picture from high school graduation ceremony so that I could remember my high school memories clearly later. So I’m really disappointed that the school said there is a high possibility of the cancellation of the graduation ceremony.

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Has COVID-19 affected your ability to graduate at all?

IB announced the cancellation of May 2020 final exams. My school also recently announced the cancellation of our graduation exam, which was also the mock exam for the May 2020 IB final exam. Fortunately, I am able to graduate as my school will give the final score for the second semester of the final year based on previous GPA and internal assignments. I have no idea how IB will grade the students instead of the final exam yet.

Has COVID-19 affected your plans for after graduation? If so, how?

I planned a trip to Europe after graduation with my cousins. As I spent my teenage years in China, it was supposed to be a big family reunion. But the situation in Europe is getting serious now, so the plan was eventually canceled.

Despite all that has happened this year, have you done anything to try and salvage these last few months of your High School experience? Have you and your friends been able to “hang out” on Zoom or FaceTime? Have you made backup plans for a Prom in case it gets officially canceled?

My friends and I usually talk in WeChat. One time, we used “tengxun jiaoyu” to communicate with each other, but soon we dropped that idea as mutual communication was impossible in that way. My Korean friends planned to have a little meeting in Korea during July, but it is not a Prom since not all students can attend it.

Thanks for giving me a chance to share my experience during this serious pandemic situation. Hope everyone is dealing with the COVID-19 crisis well.

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Photos: Haerin L. , unsplash

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