Cole Hurley: Saying the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped my senior year is an understatement – News-Press

Cole Hurley, Special to The News-Press Published 6:01 a.m. ET May 22, 2020

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Before I get into the meat and beans of this whole topic, I think it is only fair to give you a little back story on what makes me tick.

I love a good laugh, I truly believe having a good sense of humor will get you through the hardest parts of your life. This sense of humor needed in your toolbox of life must include a large range of humor, including irony.

I bring up the topic of irony because that is truly the only way to describe the situation we are in right now as a senior class. We have spent every single day for the past 12 years wishing school would be over. Twelve years of early mornings and late nights can make any scholar wish for school to come to a close. After all this time our dreams have finally come true.

Cole Hurley(Photo: Special to The News-Press)

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Here is where the irony comes in:now that it is a reality, all we want is to go back.I can confidently say I speak for easily 75% of our country's seniors when I say we would do anything to go back. Luckily we have a full toolbox, so when irony punches us in the face we are able to roll with it and be grateful for the years we did have.

Now to the main course as promised, I think saying the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped my senior year is an understatement. This event has not reshaped but completely blown up my senior year. It is unfortunate to think that when I and my thousand upon thousand ofsenior peers around the world think back to their big senior year, they will not think of graduation, prom, or a senior trip. Rather they will think of a time of world wide fear and uncertainty.

We have grown up watching movies, reading books, and listening to our parents' stories of graduation and the big senior year.It is hard to look at this situation any other way than an absolute robbery. I mean that's what this is.We have been promised certain things (prom and graduation) our entire lives and at the very last second they were taken away. As humans we often look to assign the blame for our heartache to someone,but with the pandemic being at fault there is not a person we can point a finger at. With everything being taken away and no one to blame this is one of the most frustrating times in our lives. With that being said, I have complete confidence that we will make it through. That is due to the newest addition to our toolbox.

At the start of 2020 a large fear among my friends and classmates was the fear of World War III. Obviously, nothing divides countries and populations like a World War. So a couple of months ago our world was divided to a point that hasn't been seen in generations. Now just a few months later, war is the last thing on anyone's mind. This pandemic has not made me think about my place in the world but it has made me think about the world and its problems. If war was put on hold it means it's not essential. With that being said, maybe we use this time to decide what's important for our planet. To continue to be divided or to put our differences aside and change our children's future.

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Cole Hurley: Saying the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped my senior year is an understatement - News-Press