Written by Beverly Media Group Editorial Board
The first day of senior year might be the only first day of school people are excited to go to. It’s the beginning of the end. It’s your last first day. That sounds a little frivolous, but it’s true. Senior year is full of bittersweet “lasts.” Your last football game. Your last athletic Senior Night. Your last Stress Less Week. Your last formal, and maybe even your first, too. All of those moments compile themselves into your last hurrah as a kid. 
We lost that.  
It’s gone. We can never get that back.
The Class of 2021 has endured this pandemic for the entire tail end of our high school career, arguably the best part of the entire four years. We have lost so much, only to be met with empty promises, almost zero effort, and an utter lack of recognition. As an Editorial Board, we feel that the Class of 2021 hasn’t received any of the recognition we have earned.
We acknowledge that discussions and meetings happen behind closed doors and students aren’t clued in to every decision made. We also know it’s tough to plan things virtually. Trust us. We know how exhausting Zoom can be. We know it’s hard to be innovative and come up with any source of motivation right now. We see that the district, administration and ASB are working hard to deal with the cards we’ve all been dealt, and aside from this issue we are currently raising, they have been doing a good job. We understand that our current circumstances are not ideal and that things get in the way. We understand. 
However, it feels as if the seniors were pushed to the side and forced to accept “cross that bridge when we get there” mentality. We’re not asking to reopen the school and let us do things that are unsafe simply because we’re missing these milestones. We are not asking to be the number one priority. We are just asking to be seen. It was around July when we learned the district would be virtual for the first semester. Seven months have gone by, without a single school-sponsored event for the seniors, or even a significant nod from administration. 
Unlike the Class of 2020, the seniors this year lost the excitement of gift-giving at Albion Street, the emotional relief of our final Stress Less Week, the thrill of celebrating our last Winter Formal, and many more staples of our Norman traditions. We feel cheated and rejected by the loss of memories we have been expecting to make for the last four years and the lack of effort from the school in creating some sort of event to cope for the absence of our traditions. Now, with 18 weeks left in our last year of high school and in the midst of a pandemic, we feel even more disappointed and anguished by the administration and ASB’s lack of recognition for our dedication to the Norman community.
Some members of the senior class have been committed to this district for over a decade and have witnessed family members carry out the traditions that we were supposed to make for ourselves this year: prom, Junior/Senior night, Senior Breakfast at Career Day, Grad Night and silly senior IDs, just to name a few. All of these events fulfill seniors with a sense of camaraderie as we spend our last year together. We are not just frustrated about losing memories that were to be made. We lose our Norman spirit as each day progresses because we are not together, and ASB and the administration have not shown recent efforts to specifically uplift the eldest class. With these lack of events, we feel as though we’re not living our senior year but rather another junior year.