Despite Pandemic Morton East Seniors Make Best of Graduation
Three Morton East Graduates pose outside the school on May 30th, 2020 in their caps and gowns to highlight this stepping stone of graduating. (Photo by April Alonso)
By April Alonso
Although the pandemic has altered everyday life and changed monumental highlights for youth such as attending prom or crossing the graduation stage, these students, now high school graduates, have accomplished a lot. We talked to some students from the class of 2020 at Morton East High School about their proudest moments, fondest high school memories and the impact that the coronavirus pandemic had on their last year of school.
Congratulations to the whole class of 2020!
Jennifer Gaucin
The last day everybody was there [school] was March 12, I thought we were all going to come back Monday. Once it hit April we all knew it was basically over... we were all actually very excited for our last month of high school. I guess just it being taken away was very detrimental because we're never going to get this experience back.
I'll be attending a four year university where I want to go into education, where I could help people, teach them or go into pre-med so I could become a doctor. I'm in between either but I'm hopeful that in the future I complete one of those where my parents will live long enough to see me succeed.
Naa Ashifia Anum
I’m quite excited about graduating because it’s another step towards life. I’m trying to see what the future holds. I’m quite excited [about] going to college.
[My] favorite memories are with friends and teachers who have good gatherings. One was when we came on a Saturday to take a test and my teacher even baked goods. It was really touching because she actually set the time to cook for the students when we came on a Saturday.
While I’m quite healthy and quite safe, [the pandemic] it’s devastating but at least I’m glad to know our school is doing what they can to make things as easy as possible for us to do everything we had. Also quite happy at least I do get to feel like I graduated and know that there are people around me who share the same thing and are healthy too.
Brenda Zuloaga
I'm really grateful that I've finally got through high school, because it's just been such a long process…I set out to become summa cum laude, and get the seal of biliteracy. I was able to achieve both of those things.
[The pandemic] has sort of stunted some memories that I would have had. I would have gone to spring state for JSA, I would have done senior activities. I wasn't going to go to Six Flags since I'm afraid of roller coasters. I feel like I would have gone through with going to Chuck E. Cheese with friends because it would be very funny to go in like prom dresses and suits to Chuck E. Cheese and just have a fun time with friends.
Carla Acosta
I’m really proud of how far I’ve come and me and all my classmates. It feels like high school as a whole just flew by. I remember me and my best friend being freshman and talking about how one day we are going to be older and we had all these goals in mind and we imagined how our senior year would be. Of course that’s not how it went but it feels like freshman year was yesterday.
No one imagined that we weren’t going to get to say bye to our teachers in the way we would have wanted to but at the same time, I realized that I am grateful that my family is healthy, that my friends are healthy so I think that really matters.
I’m really proud of taking part in a lot of sports. When I turned 16, I got my first job and I was helping around at home and I was doing good in school and sports.
Marallely Gonzales
At first I was excited but towards the end how it was announced that our school year was cancelled, I felt bummed out because graduation was a big thing to me. For my family graduating was a big thing and not being able to celebrate it during this time was kind of sad.
Hopefully after COVID-19 we can go back to school and not start college online but I’m looking forward to starting a new chapter, ending high school and starting college. Especially for hispanic communities, a lot of people don’t have that opportunity and for me going it's a big opportunity. Most of my family didn’t graduate high school so even graduating high school was a big thing and none of my family members actually went to college so this is another big thing.
Dayanna Gonzalez
It’s a great honor that I was actually able to graduate. I’m very proud of myself and my peers because we made it through even though this coronavirus has brought us down we came together and it made us stronger and we were able to finish off.
I am planning to become a nurse. I want to give back to the community. I want to be able to help people and the way you treat your patients and the people that work around you, you can have a big impact.
Britney
It feels unreal and overwhelming since I am the first generation to graduate from high school. It feels amazing but at the same time, a lot of pressure. Like a lot of expectations for you and also exciting because of the experience I’m going to gain out of high school is going to be very different and I’m excited to see what the future holds.
My family is working class so it is hard for them to keep up with trying to pay bills [during the pandemic]. It’s not impossible, they found their way, it's just harder for them because they depended on their businesses and to know that they can’t because of the virus it is just difficult to keep up with rent or being able to buy food sometimes.
My future looks like me being able to do what I love which is acting, dancing, singing while still bringing awareness to situations like social injustice, racism and having to help those in need.
Maria Razo
I'm a first generation graduate for high school. So it's really exciting to just kind of start setting up my own path to life. It's really exciting for me and my parents, because we moved to this country a long time ago so the goal was always to just graduate and move up in education and just be successful.
The pandemic cut my senior year short and it’s been very disappointing because I missed my last track season and graduation. I didn’t know I was saying goodbye to all my friends for the last time in my high school career but my family is healthy and safe and for that I’m grateful.
My best friend, she had AP biology our junior year of high school and she needed two soda bottles. She brought them to school full. We were in the bathroom dumping them down the sink but we felt bad so we just thought, okay, we'll just chug them, it'll be fine. It's just two liters of soda. Then this girl comes out of one of the stalls and sees us chugging the soda. My friend panics and says, ‘You want some soda?’ The girl said, ‘Actually yeah, I'm thirsty I'll take that.’ She took a big chug of it and we were so happy with each other because it was so weird.
Jocelyn
It's a little surreal only because this isn’t the way I expected it to go but nonetheless the school has been trying to keep us happy by getting us a virtual graduation. I’m still happy that I’m graduating.
I was friends with a lot of seniors and they would hype up our senior breakfast, the Six Flags trip, graduation and prom. I was very excited to do all these things and I’m an introverted person so I was very excited for all the things I would have done. Since the pandemic happened, we can’t do the things we wanted to do and it left me a little depressed because there goes my final year, but I have some really great friends that have made us all stay positive and at least we get this virtual graduation.
I’m hopeful to be successful, make my parents proud for encouraging me so much in school and I want to be a successful person in my own way, not necessarily rich and famous but live up to my own expectations.
Mayra Robles Gomez
I feel like my four years in high school kind of led up to this moment and even though we're not sure about how we're doing graduation, I'm still proud of myself and my friends because we did get through it and we're done. We're moving on to the next chapter in our lives.
I'm not a very social person but I found myself like making new friends. Which I'm proud of doing and I'm grateful for because they're people I'm going to carry with me for the rest of my life.
I feel like even though it is for me, I feel like a part of me does it for [my parents] because I want them to be proud and I'm grateful for everything they've done for me. Also my teachers, they've all been super supportive and my swimming coaches, I really admire them as well. They shaped me in a lot of ways.
Ariel Avitia
I'd like to thank my parents—they were my rock. The first ones to push me into making sure that I was good, not overworking myself, but you know, doing everything I could to ensure my success going forward—friends too, they were solid and they stuck around. We just kept pushing each other to try and do what we could and keeping each other in check and that right there just made everything a whole lot better.
Gabriela Corral Salazar
I have a lot of mixed feelings and even right now I am still processing it. I am proud of my accomplishments and finally graduating but at the same time I feel like I’m missing out on a lot.
It was really hard to transition from a school environment to online. It was more difficult now through a screen because we don’t get to experience the same thing as we do in person. A lot of students have thrived through this but the other half, including me struggled to find a routine and to find a place in how to keep going.
There are a lot of teachers and mentors at Morton East that made a huge impact on me and they gave me a lot of confidence in my academics. Overall as a person, I feel like I’ve grown out of this shell that I entered with in high school.
Victoria Villagomez
I think it is definitely a bittersweet moment right now due to the situation where we are at but I'm honestly so proud of the fact that I’m closing a chapter and starting a new one. High school is such a big accomplishment and when it’s here it's like huh, I did that.
I want to be happy, completely happy whatever the decision I want to make. College is something I always wanted to do since I was little and the environment I grew up with. Especially my dad, that was something he really wanted. Sadly he passed away so he won’t be seeing me cross the stage but that’s definitely something he really wanted to do.
I will be attending college in the fall and majoring in psychology and maybe 3-sport athlete in college.
April Alonso is a Co-Founder of Cicero Independiente. She last published a photo essay about what Cicero and Berwyn look like during the COVID-19 pandemic.
