The exciting days of our senior year have consumed our minds since we first learned the meaning of ‘seniority’ very early in our first days of high school. We were encouraged to listen to and do what the upper classmen were doing and to follow in their footsteps. We anticipated experiencing all those “last times” and being the “big kids” on campus. However, we never expected our last homecoming to be experienced in our junior year. We never thought we would have to wear a mask during our drill team competitions or that not getting to dance at away football games would ever be a possibility. We watched 2020 seniors revere their last pep rallies and their last time getting asked to a school dance. We never dreamed those would be some of our lasts too… yet that’s what happened. When we got out for the summer early, on March 13, 2020, we had no idea that this three-month quarantine would still be stealing moments from us over a year later. It has been very different from our expectations and now, high school is over... forever. This was not that highly anticipated senior year of our imagination, the one we had been working so hard for since the ninth grade. But sometimes, that is just the way it goes. Nothing in life is ever guaranteed, and this year, many have had to learn that the hard way.
Unfortunately, I’m a little more acquainted with that concept than most. Beginning in the fourth grade, everything changed for my family. In January of my fourth-grade year, my uncle was shot and killed in a hunting accident, and a week later, my mother was diagnosed with cancer for the first time. She went through radiation treatments, intense chemotherapy and several operations over the course of a long time. I remember when I watched my dad shave her hair for the first time, and the time I had to drive her to the hospital at age 14 after her only lung collapsed while we were home alone one day. She passed away my freshman year of high school, and everything has gotten dramatically more difficult since. We have lived in four different cities throughout my life, in 15 or more houses that would accommodate our financial ability for the year. My siblings and I have gone back and forth from our grandparents’ houses over the last few years while we wait to move back into a house with our dad one day. He works early in the mornings, and often late at night, so my grandparents and I have been responsible for both of my siblings’ transportation to and from school each day. My Dad is taking a three-month job in another state hoping to make some extra money to buy us a house when he returns, so my siblings and I will be without him for a few months.
My Dad has worked very hard to make sure we have all that we need. He lost his only brother and his wife and is now fighting for his four kids. I’m sure his life has differed greatly from what he imagined. Nothing was guaranteed to be perfect when he married my mother and had kids. There are no guarantees to life. When I imagined my senior year, I could never have imagined my mom not walking me down the field on senior night or at graduation. But those moments were never guaranteed.
So, I learned that difficult lesson in my personal life a while ago, but the whole world has had to learn it over the course of the pandemic. My challenges have given me the opportunity to learn and grow from the experiences, and I know what to look out for when making decisions for myself in the future. A woman who I hold in high regard wrote an article about my mother soon after she passed away. She told a story about a stressful morning with her children as they tried to make it out of the door for school. In the chaos, she had a realization; regardless of the stress, she was lucky enough to have the chance to take her kids to school. Her article highlighted to me the importance of counting every blessing because nothing in this world is guaranteed. While we can learn from our mistakes, we can’t avoid what the world throws at us. We cannot stop a pandemic any more than we can stop losing our loved ones. This world will never be easy, but through our COVID-19 senior year, and its daily challenges, we have been taught how to make the most of every experience. Entering the next chapters of our lives, I bet the class of 2021 will be some of the first to make the most of every opportunity that comes our way. We will be at every game, every school function, every party, and we’ll take every chance because we have seen how quickly those opportunities could be taken away.
I cannot wait to jump into the real world and see what our futures hold. While this year has been full of so many surprises and zero guarantees, I believe it has been one of the best. Some of the strongest bonds have been formed through all of this and we have proven it will take more than a pandemic to stop us.
Lily Kate Sewell is the daughter of Shelby Sewell. She is a Texas Scholar, Ross Perot STEM Academy graduate and Distinguished Achievement Program graduate. Lily was selected for National Honor Society, Quill & Scroll International Honorary Society for High School Journalists, Mu Alpha Theta Mathematics Honor Society, International Thespian Society and National Scholastic Press Association Honor Roll. Additionally, she earned a Bilingual Performance Acknowledgement.
Lily was a member of the Texas HighSteppers, Student Council, THS Publications, Calculus Club, and Rosebud Junior Garden Club.
She was offered a scholarship from University of Central Arkansas.
Lily accepted the Texas HighSteppers Scholarship, William J. Pedigo, Jr. Memorial Service Scholarship, Holly Norton Scholarship along with the Tiger Network and Founder’s Scholarship from Ouachita Baptist University, where she will attend, majoring in Nursing.
