In the early stages of the pandemic, everybody felt horrible for the class of 2020. After all, they missed out on the final semester of their senior year! It seemed as though the entire world rose to their defense: celebrities like Billie Eilish and John Kravinski threw Prom 2020 to make up for what the seniors lost. The class got shows and celebrations, and though nobody would wish to take their place, everybody rallied to comfort them.

Then, the 2021 seniors came around, and nobody did the same. Even if we return to school in the spring, it’ll be a shadow of the traditional high school experience. If prom is cancelled yet again, most people from this class will have never attended prom. Period. What gives?

Back in early 2020, most people thought that quarantine was temporary, and treated the seniors’ loss as such. They wanted to make up for a loss that we believed would only affect that final semester.

We’ve since acclimated to the coronavirus. Though we’re still in quarantine, many of us don’t treat life as such. Many ignore quarantine guidelines and act as though life is normal. As a result, people don’t think to acknowledge the class of 2021: they simply treat this school year as an unfortunate circumstance. Few remember the seniors whose entire year is being ruined.

I don’t say this to lessen the impact of the class of 2020’s troubles because they certainly suffered much during their final semester and first semester of college. However, I would ask that people acknowledge what the class of 2021 has lost. After all, we may lose our entire year without so much as acknowledgement from the school system.