[p o e t r y]

A Covid Student

My friends tell me
That Covid 19 stole our senior year

People say
"Class of 2020
The ones who graduated
In the midst of an
International pandemic"

San Antonio said
"This was a year unlike any other"

"Life Put On Hold"
Quote The Daily Telegraph

"Stay at Home"
The San Francisco Chronicle

"Lockdown"

"Quarantine"

"Graduation postponed"

"Online classes"

The world shut down.

My friends complained
That our senior year was
Canceled
I didn't care
I got lucky
I still had a graduation
I understood that
We had to go online
We had to quarantine
We couldn't live our normal lives
We couldn't finish senior year
I understood

But then Freshman year
Of college hit
And I started
At the university
I had spent 12 years
Growing up at
My dad taught there
Since I was 10
We hosted college students
Since I was 11
I had dreamed
Of color wars
And welcome week
And honors slumber parties
Since I was 11 years old
And suddenly
There was nothing

And that was okay
I still got to be on campus
I still got to be a college student
I still got to attend
Just no overnights
No color wars
No welcome week
Just masks
And school
And that was okay

I was fine
It didn't hurt
It wasn't that disappointing
Because I got to go to college still
It was fine
Until today
When I saw my college post
And the freshman this year
Get slumber parties
And welcome week
And color wars

They get to be freshmen
I only got to be
A student
Surviving a pandemic

I got lucky
I got to go to college
Even with a pandemic
But I don't feel lucky

I feel angry and I feel sad
Because I managed to be
A freshman
During the only year
That freshman
Weren't really freshman
They were Covid students
I feel angry and I feel sad
Because I spend 12 years
Looking forward to being
A freshman
And I will spend
The rest of my college career
Watching freshman
Get to be freshman
And I will never
Get to be a freshman
Because I was a 2020 senior
Because I was a 2021 freshman
Because I was a Covid student
Not a freshman 

(07/23/21)