May 7, 2025, NC’s class of 2025 seniors departed after four years of hard work and dedication. An array of underclassmen found themselves weeping and wishing their graduating friends farewell, all the while remaining at school for another two weeks before summer. The issue with the graduating class lies not in the fact that the seniors graduated and prepared to spread their wings, but that they left gaps in the hearts of all their now saddened peers.
“I feel really sad to see the seniors go, I learned so much from them and I had a really great emotional connection with some of them. But, I’m also happy to see them go because they’re starting the next stage of their life. All the advice they gave me are things I still follow to this day,” junior Grier Coats said.
The gap left truly appears unfillable in wake of the class of 2025’s absence, but the same feeling encroaches on the minds of underclassmen every year at the prospect of surviving the rest of high school without mentors, friends and leaders that the seniors stood as. The beauty of sadness lies not in tragedy or melancholy, but in knowing that because grief remains, a beautiful bond came before it. “Bridge the Gap” aims to highlight the understanding that while it may appear difficult and hinder one’s ability to thrive, this remains the natural flow of life.
Stanza one of the poem aims to capture the emptiness left behind after the senior’s departure. As underclassmen begin to fill the seats of their predecessors, the task feels lonely, even though a majority of rising seniors desire to graduate as well. Within stanza two, the line “I said goodbye and left the door open” plays on the fact that grades nine through 11 now struggle to find ways to keep in touch with their newly college bound friends. High school differs from college in a multitude of ways, so trying to compare schedules and find time to stay in touch with graduates presents a tough challenge for high schoolers.
Before graduation, plenty of underclassmen came to terms with the fact that their friends would graduate soon, “But now you’re gone, just like we said” provides insight into the idea that seniors spoke with their underclassmen friends to prepare them for the upcoming school year. Yet, no matter the number of conversations that occur between friends, goodbyes feel gut-wrenching when they pass by.
Finally, the line “I have to move on, you’ve got the world to see,” shows that as much as NC reels from the absence of dear friends and confidants, the class of 2026 fills the space left in wake willingly, as did every previous graduating class before them. While it appears difficult to wish friends farewell, this goodbye to those who came before exists as a natural and constant part of life. Grief, change and new beginnings all contribute to the high school experience and poetry helps students cope through it all.
“Poetry does a lot for me honestly, it really helps me get my emotions out and sort of just work through how I’m feeling. I wrote poems about the seniors leaving too, it’s hard you know. The saddest part for me is just now having to go to school like everything is normal and no one is missing, because that’s what it feels like, it feels like something is missing,” junior Morgan Lackey said.