With SOLs over and warmer weather coming our way, the school year is coming to an end. On June 10, the school will officially close for the summer.

With the exception of masks and other precautionary measures, this school year has been mostly the same as the school years that came before the pandemic. So, for the first time in a couple of years, summer break and end-of-year activities will resemble a time before COVID-19.

“This year is so much different from the last for a number of reasons. First of all, there are so many more social interactions, and people talk and work together. Second, learning has been so much easier because it is easier to pay attention in class. Lastly, I am able to see my friends. Last year I felt so isolated, and I wasn’t able to talk to anybody or eat lunch with anybody, but this year, I felt like I had a social life,” says Ela P, an eighth grader at Longfellow.

As students near the end of the year, they start getting ready for summer break. Mary R. is getting ready for the end of the year by “making sure all of my missing assignments are turned in. I am also starting to empty out my locker.” Ela P. is studying for her geometry final and making sure she is caught up in all of her classes.

Meanwhile, teachers have started wrapping up the quarter and getting ready for their students to transition into new grades. English teacher Nora Oney plans to give her students an end-of-the-year feedback survey and a six-word memoir. 

“I like students to reflect on their class experience and their own lives at the end of the year,” Oney said.

As we learn how to live with the pandemic, students and teachers have begun to make plans for the summer. For some people, this summer will be their first vacation since the pandemic hit.  Kaylee P., a 7th grader at LMS, is taking advantage of this opportunity to travel. Kaylee is going to the beach and white water rafting. Ela P. is touring with her chorus, so she’ll be visiting Spain and Portugal.

Students are not the only ones going on summer trips – some teachers are as well.

“I am going to Detroit to see where my mother lived in the 1950s,” said Ms. Oney. Not only that, but she also gets the privilege of traveling there with her mother. “I’ve just had this fantasy of going there and seeing the places she’s always talked about when Detroit was in its heyday,” she explains. Such an exciting trip to make memories with your mother.

School ending can be a bittersweet thing, as Mary R. puts it. “I’m excited for summer to start. I can’t wait for warm weather and having all day to hang out with friends. But, unlike most other kids, I’m also going to miss being at school. I like to be busy all the time so being at school is nice because it keeps me busy for most of the day.”

For some students, it seems only yesterday was the hot August day when school began. For other students, it seems as though the school year has dragged on for much longer. But now, this school year has come to an end for everyone.