I’m not good at having emotional conversations verbally (I’m working on it), but I like to think that I’m pretty good at having them through writing. So with that said, this is for my sister. This is for her and her senior class and every other senior who has felt like their world is shattering with the abrupt ending to their senior year.

I’m not going to sit here and pretend to know what you are feeling or what you are going through because 1. I didn’t go through any of my teen years in a pandemic and 2. Because pandemic aside, I was never emotionally invested in high school.

“Mads, what are you trying to get at?”

Hear me out.

I went to school and went home. It was just a thing I had to do. I never really found my “group” within high school. I transferred schools a few times trying to finally feel like I was having the traditional high school experience that I felt everyone around me was having. I didn’t find it. My fondest teen memories are from dance, but I never felt emotionally invested in anything inside the walls of a high school.

So what am I going to tell you? What can I as a person who was ready for her high school experience be over tell you when yours ended too soon? I’m going to tell you that I don’t understand, but despite that lack of understanding I’m going to tell you to grieve. I’m going to tell you not to listen to the people who try to belittle your feelings about YOUR situation. They didn’t loose what you have lost, they have the memories.

I’m going to tell you this- mourn the loss of the memories you were prepared to make. Be upset about the untraditional, drive through graduations and missing out on prom. Feel the confusion that comes with the lack of formal closure of this chapter of life. Let yourself feel like your world is crashing.

Feel all of the feelings.

But in addition to those feelings, I want really really want you to remember that there are so many amazing things waiting for you on the other side of all of this. While the memories you are missing out on were the great ones that most people look back at fondly, they don’t have to be your greatest or fondest.

There is a whole world out there that is now at your very fingertips. There are so many memories out there to catch. There are new people to meet, new places to go.

There is so much more life left to be lived.

And you all will live that life with more strength, compassion, empathy and presence because of where you stand right now. You will savor every beautiful moment you find because you know that more aren’t guaranteed. You will be capable of big, scary, hard things because you will remember that you have already weathered a big, scary, hard storm and survived it. You will be on the hunt for experiences that make you feel alive and I promise you will find them.

The value of your life or your success doesn’t come from being handed a piece of paper on stage or dancing with your friends in a pretty dress. Your value comes from the hard work that you have put in to get to here. Your value is in the friendships you’ve made. It’s in your ambition. It’s in your ability to feel. It’s in all you have done and all that you aspire to do.

The trips you have planned, the schools you’ve dreamed of, the careers you were ready to chase- it’s all still ahead of you. It may be delayed or your path may slightly skew but those big, exciting new things are still out there for you to chase.

So for now, mourn the experiences you didn’t get to have. Feel through the idea that it all came to a sudden abrupt end.

But also, I beg of you all, remember that this is not your end, it’s your beginning. Prepare yourselves for the world of memories that are out there just waiting to be made.

For those of you off to college, here’s a little bit of advice.

For those of you going your own directions, here’s a little note for you.

More sisterly advice, here!

For The Seniors