The four years of high school pass in a blink of an eye and marks the beginning of adulthood. After three years of working hard to achieve an acceptance letter to a dream college, seniors should enjoy their final year soaking up memories with friends and commemorating their “lasts” of high school. 

Unfortunately for the class of 2020, their senior year ended abruptly, but the administration organized a socially distanced graduation and a drive-through celebration. Around Cobb County, student government and administration teamed up to celebrate the class of 2021, who missed their junior prom and the beginning of their senior year, including a final homecoming football game and dance. Of course, the pandemic does not allow for a homecoming dance, but Allatoona, Kell, and Kennesaw Mountain all organized socially distanced events for their seniors. Those high schools and several others around the county allowed students to vote online for their homecoming court, an event that seniors looked forward to in hopes of receiving enough votes to be crowned king or queen.

“We have already had so much taken away from us during a pandemic and as seniors, this is our last chance to experience some of this stuff. It feels unfair, especially when we see other schools doing it,” senior Macey Lawrence said. 

NC missed an important opportunity to make it up to seniors. Schools around the county proved that social distanced senior celebration could occur to commemorate the seniors that worked hard for three years. Besides homecoming court, the NC student government failed to plan a homecoming football game and spirit week, unlike other schools nearby. While the NC football season progressed, they neglected to host the seniors in a homecoming game. What could have turned into a socially distanced celebration and memory for seniors as they leave NC in just a few short months dissipated into thin air as football season came and went. 

Rumors fly that homecoming will occur in the spring in place of “Hoopcoming,” but to face reality, the pandemic will not end anytime soon. Come the spring, social distancing and other protocols will remain in place, and homecoming without a chilly, football game only reinforces the fact that things will continue differently this year, while nothing stands in the way of allowing seniors to celebrate once more. The seniors deserve more, and it stands within the administration and student government’s abilities to provide students with a final year they will remember.