Class of 2020 at Costa Mesa High School Is Apprehensive But Hopeful of the Future
Being a high school senior during a global pandemic is difficult enough as students can’t go to prom and participate in senior spirit weeks. Worst of all: not being able to partake in the graduation ceremony.
For the graduating class of 2020 at Costa Mesa High School, it hits at a deeper level.
“I miss Mesa because it was the only place I can get away from my family,” said Airamy Alvarado-Mateo. She planned to go to Mexico to visit her grandmother and start a tattooing internship over the summer, but the current stay-at-home orders are preventing her from traveling.
“I’m going to have to find another way,” she said.
Alvarado-Mateo is one of the many students at Costa Mesa High School who sought solace from their home environment when they’re on campus, something that virtual instruction severely lacks.
Angeles Perales, like Alvarado-Mateo, sees Costa Mesa High as a safe space. She said the counselors consoled students and parents alike as the school began shutting down for the rest of the year.
“One of the biggest reasons why I try my hardest to put my best foot forward in school (was) because I knew that being able to walk with my friends was going to be the biggest moment of my life,” she said.
Perales also decided to finish her senior year at Costa Mesa High despite living nearly 10 miles away due to her strong connection with the school.
“For that to be taken away from me kind of makes it hard for me to even show up to my Zoom classes,” she said. One of her closest friends has been motivating her in the recent weeks to finish her classes.
“I feel robbed of six years of my life,” said Ivana Garcia, who was a part of multiple sports teams for the school, including tennis, water polo and swim. Garcia would spend her lunch breaks in her favorite teachers' classrooms, including science teacher Cristal Miller’s classroom or photography teacher Kirby Piazza’s classroom.
Ivana plans to find a job over the summer, attending college at Saddleback in the fall.
Briana Lopez said she spent the past few weeks not thinking too much about graduation.
“It makes me cry,” said Lopez. “Everyone who has graduated had that experience, so I feel like it was stolen from me and everyone.”
Lopez was the treasurer for the K-Pop Club on campus. The club has covered K-Pop dances at school rallies or in front of the school quad during club rushes. She planned to work at the Orange County Fair this summer, but the fair had been canceled for 2020. This marks the first time the annual event is canceled since its opening in 1945.
Yenci Vilchis Garcia’s summer job plans fell through as well. She planned to be a lifeguard and travel with her family in July, but with the pandemic, her summer plans are put on pause. She was a part of the swimming team at Mesa for all four years of her high school career.
“I miss knowing I have a future ahead of me,” Vilchis Garcia said.
This particular senior class from Costa Mesa High School is composed of ambitious young adults. Most of the student body is in a club, a sports team, marching band, or other extracurriculars.
They’re also activists at heart. Last month, one of the high school seniors posted a petition demanding the school’s senior exit project be canceled. The yearlong project was supposed to help the graduating class map out its future, which includes presenting their plans to a panel of teachers and doing an internship. The petition has gathered over 350 signatures as students struggled to finish the project on top of doing their online courses. In March 2018, the class participated in a national walkout to protest gun violence by staging a lock-in in the school’s gymnasium.
The graduating class of 2020 at Costa Mesa High School does have a few words to say to their class:
“They are not alone if they still feel uncertain about their future.”
“Stay safe, relax. We are graduating one way or another, and maybe we will see everyone together someday.”
“Although it may seem that life is on pause, the road ahead will never close.”
“You are the strongest group of people and I am proud to be graduating with you all. ”
“I’m really going to miss a lot of them,” said Perales.
All five students will be attending college or a trade school in the fall. It’s still unclear if virtual instruction will continue for upcoming college freshmen, making them potentially the first freshman class to start off their first semester virtually in the age of coronavirus.
This story was made for a final project at Cal State Fullerton for the Spring 2020 semester.
