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Chloe Hardin

Erath High senior: ‘Putting my thoughts down on paper as I deal with coronavirus’

The Meridional would like to know what others are feeling or experiencing when it comes to the coronavirus and the what is going on in the World. Email your thoughts to abbnews@bellsouth.net
This is a letter written by Erath High senior Chloe Hardin.

Dear Erath Class of 2020,

In the years 2001 and 2002, many of us were born. Around this same time, two planes caused the collapse of the World Trade Center and a third struck the Pentagon. Whether we were crawling around or still in the womb, a universal question plagued our parents. “What kind of a world will our children grow up in?”
As years went by, the world of air travel was never the same.
Regardless, lives went on as usual. We took our first steps, learned to speak, and made our very first memories. Entering education proved to be just as tragic as entering the world as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita tore us apart and separated us into two schools.
We returned to our new learning environments and were ecstatic for middle school, but before we could get there, the world was expected to end in 2012. Our fifth grade year. The end of elementary school and the end of the world. Clearly, and thankfully, the Mayan calendar had it wrong.
Shortly after, middle school seemed to be looking up. We were finally reunited at Erath Middle School. After three short years, celebration turned to tragedy as we lost one of the most loved members of our class, Adontee Martin, in the middle of eighth grade LEAP testing.
Freshman year was rough without him and was made harder with the Flood of 2016. Nevertheless, we got our feet back on dry ground and were determined to make our high school experiences the best yet.
Finally, as our senior year comes to a close, a pandemic hits. Our last band assessments are canceled. Student Council, Beta, and 4-H are canceled. Cheer and dance are canceled. Track, softball, baseball, and powerlifting are all canceled. Essentially, every organization we’re a part of has come to an early close. Goodbyes are said early and the potential of a graduation ceremony also seems to slowly dwindle away.
We anticipated a month of our final memories together only to have it stripped away at the last moment. After experiencing all of this together, the lowest blow seems to be the conclusion of our senior year.
Luckily, it is not the last chapter of our lives. High school is only the beginning.
I have heard from many teachers that our class tends to complain less than others. I truly believe that this is due to the experiences and disappointments that have befallen us. We have been learning to persevere through tragedies and hard times since birth.
Our education has been constantly interrupted, yet we take it in stride and hold our heads high. We fiercely fight for what we believe in. Our relationships with one another have become incredibly strong. We build each other up after natural disasters, hold each other together through loss, and we now comfort each other through quarantine.
Looking back, some may call our life experience a tragedy. I choose to call it character-building.

Sincerely,

P.S. If there are zombies out there, I’m sure we’ll live through that, too.

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