There are fewer than nine weeks left in senior Matt Bolen’s high school career, and he says that he’ll continue to worry about his increased workload until he leaves the school to complete his capstone project. 

“I feel stressed out right now because all my teachers are giving me tons of work before capstone, but I’m very excited for college,” Bolen said.

The 2020-2021 school year has been disruptive for Valley as a whole, but especially for the senior class, and senior Emilie Kipp says that while looking back at all the changes from freshman to senior year, she can’t help but feel sad about the time that has passed. 

“Time really flew by, and looking back, I’ve grown a lot as a person,” she said. “It doesn’t even feel real yet that school will be over in less than a month, and then it’s Capstone time.”  

Senior Isabel Gracias agrees with Kipp and said the end of the school year caught her by surprise.

“It’s kinda baffling for me, since the time went by so fast,” Gracias said. “You think four years is a lot of time, but it all went by in a blink of an eye, and it’s incredible to see how far I’ve come with everything.”

Now that graduation is less than two months away, seniors are having mixed emotions. Kipp can’t help but feel conflicted over graduating in June.

 “One side of me is happy and excited, while the other is sad thinking about leaving all my friends and family and going our separate ways,” Kipp said.

Kipp, Bolen and Gracias have decided to not risk contracting COVID-19 and stuck with 100% online classes. As he makes his way to the end of highschool, Bolen struggles with completing assignments.

“I don’t really have much motivation to do work and it’s very hard to pay attention to my online classes, but I’m pushing through, so basically I have senioritis,”  Bolen said.

Gracias tried to make the best of her final year of high school. Contrary to Bolen, she said online school helped her become a better learner altogether. 

“It sucks a bit that my senior year was through a screen but in some ways it helped me become focused and not as distracted as I used to be,” Gracias said. “I do wish I had more senior things to do like a prom but overall it’s been a fun year.” 

Kipp wishes she could have had a typical senior year. She missed out on sports and activities such as prom, senior skip day and senior sunrise. 

“This is definitely not the way I thought my senior year would be,” she said. “I wish everyone could be in person and things would be normal. I miss going to football games, and my year missed out on all of the traditional senior things.”