Catalina Hómez Delgado 11D

The life of a 21st century senior in the middle of COVID-19 pandemic

My name is Catalina Hómez, I am 18 years old and this is my day 17 in quarantine because of
COVID-19 pandemic. I have been in my school Gimnasio Vermont for about 12 years since kinder. I
have passed the best years of my short life at my school; I have known friendship and love, I have
struggled with classes such as physics and calculus, I have cried because of failing an exam, but the
most important is that I have learned a lot of things that are not only worth academic but worth
the rest of my life. I am in 11th grade, my last year of school, a senior of “PROM 2020”. 2020 was
supposed to be the year of my graduation and the end of my school life; I thought it was going to
be the best year of my life until now since this is the moment everybody was waiting for. But all of
a sudden life changes completely, and it seems that the idea of enjoying the last moments at
school with my friends and graduating in a normal way is literally vanished.

Almost three weeks ago I was with my friends having class at school in our classroom and now I
just wake up every day to study in my computer alone, we were having lunch together and now I
just eat by myself at home, we were having fun playing volleyball and now I am just sitting in my
bedrooms desk writing all of this stuff which has my heart broken and my mind shocked. “We
were happy and we didn’t know it” is what we say these days, thinking “I could have enjoyed a lot
more everything when I was at school” even though there’s no doubt we enjoyed every single
second 110%. It might seem crazy that at the end what we miss the most are the little immaterial
things like just being at school. Who would have imagined it? The 21st century generation kids who
are “addicted” to technology are tired of the screens and just want their life back.

It has been really sad but I have to admit that the pandemic has also a good side. The quarantine
has been the opportunity to reconnect with our family, do things we don’t usually do and also take
into consideration the difficult situation we are living worldwide. It has been the time to be
empathic with others and be thankful for absolutely everything we have. The negatives may
appear to outweigh the positive part but in this moment what’s left is to hope that everything will
be better someday and that the best things are yet to come, hopefully including a graduation
ceremony which we “PROM 2020” deserve :´) .