The Senior Year That Wasn’t: Penelope Z.

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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 Penelope Z., an 18-year-old student from Beijing who’s finishing her senior year at Beijing World Youth Academy (BWYA) and will be an incoming freshman at Northwestern University.

Can you briefly walk us through how COVID-19 has evolved for you, personally? What were your initial thoughts? At what point did you realize the devastation and disruption it was causing? How do you currently feel?

I care a lot about my own health and my family’s health, so I never really underestimated the seriousness of this virus. Actually, my parents and I planned to travel to Sanya in January to visit my grandparents, but we canceled our flight because of the bad situation in China at the time. I currently feel that there is no need to stress about the virus, and there is no need to panic about it, if you are already taking precautionary measures.

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?

Yes, senior year should have been the highlight of our life. Unfortunately, my friends and I cannot meet up frequently and we had to communicate via WeChat and communicate with our teachers via Teams. My friends and I mainly just chat about what we are up to lately, what fun things we are doing and how we are enriching our lives during this time. Some of my friends are planning to learn a new language during this time and I also plan on improving my French, so that is pretty exciting.

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

So far our school has informed us an online graduation ceremony will be held instead, though we all really genuinely hoped that these events would not be canceled, as the graduation ceremony and the final prom are like the “finale” of high school that I was looking forward to.

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

Our school is a very organized and experienced community, and the administration has provided students and parents with very clear information as to how COVID-19 will affect our graduation. The short answer is that it has not affected my ability to graduate. Even though the IB has canceled the final exams, our school has made arrangements and plans that will ensure we graduate successfully.

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

It has definitely affected my plans for after graduation. My friends and I were planning to travel together to Japan or Germany in July to celebrate our graduation from high school, but now it does not seem possible anymore, which is certainly a disappointment. I was planning on going abroad for college, but whether or not we can attend colleges abroad without any postponement or delay in August or September really depends on how the international situation evolves with regards to COVID-19.

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?

Yes! I chatted with a lot of my friends via WeChat call. Quarantine is really boring, especially when it stretches on for weeks now, so I have been trying out new things such as cooking, and I have also been reading a lot of great novels to make each day more interesting.

Stay safe everyone!!!

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Photos: Penelope Z

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