I remember when COVID first started. I bet all of us do. I mean after all, it was the time our lives completely changed. My school sent out the email on March 12, 2020. It seems like it wasn’t so long ago but that was almost two years ago already. Our last day of school was the next day, March 13th. We all thought it was going to be a two week vacation, like a spring break before the actual spring break. Then it lasted longer and longer. People were suffering and getting sick more and more everyday. It was hard on everybody, when people couldn’t hang out with their friends and family the way they used to, when they were stuck at home and their mental health was running rampant in their mind. It was harsh and it hurt a lot of us, including the students.
I remember two months before the email was sent out by my school, in January, there was a dance. It was a small little winter dance that was set up in our gym that not many people went to. I went with friends and the guy I was talking to at the time and we had a good time. It was fun and filled with a lot of good memories. Little did I know that after that came a year and a half of staying home and not seeing my friends.
It was so hard to stay home, not see friends, or go out with them. It was so difficult to not see the people I had gotten so used to seeing at school everyday and of course, not talk to them. We all know that quarantine made us realize who our real friends were, but it still hurt not talking to them during that time. It was hard and to be quite honest, it was painful to deal with my family during that time too. My mental health was in shambles and my heart was heavy a lot of the time. However, because it was so difficult for all of us to stay away from others, I think it made it more rewarding when we did see our friends and family.
When I first saw my best friend at the time after not seeing her for such a long time, it felt amazing. I was extremely happy because she was in front of me and not on a phone screen. When I saw my other friends, it was just as rewarding. See, human beings are social. We crave human interaction that doesn’t just include our families, so when we don’t get it, we feel like we’re going stir crazy. Which is why it was easier to appreciate when we all finally saw each other again.
When I saw most of the people I knew from school again, it was prom. So that was May of 2021. It was honestly a dream. I had made the decision to go to prom one week before it was happening, which is hilarious when you think about it (though my mom didn’t find it so funny). But I don’t regret it. My friends were going and I had seen people that I hadn’t seen or hung out with for over a year. I danced with the friends that I’d had since freshman year and I laughed with them again. And it felt amazing.
The food was actually delicious, the music was great, and honestly the most important part was that the vibe was there. Everyone was so happy to see each other again that there was no drama keeping people apart or people being in cliques or anything. Everybody was just happy that we had those interactions with our peers again. Everybody was just happy they were seeing each other. It kind of brought us together more than anything else ever could have.
We were all tired of COVID and of everything that was happening, that we all just wanted one night to forget about it. And we got what we wanted. One last dance with a few last memories. I’ve never thought that memories were something we needed, but after everything that happened during COVID, I was more than grateful that we made these last few memories we’d carry on with us for the rest of our lives.
Cheers to our last dance and may these memories always be cherished as something special after something so heartbreaking.