WASHINGTON — The coronavirus pandemic has made the school year challenging for students across the country, cancelling major events and moving from the classroom to online learning. We spoke with one student who gave us her take on the school year.
Meet Madeline Haynes. Her friends call her Maddie.
"Senior year was supposed to end for seniors on May 22nd, and it doesn’t really feel like it’s ending, because all I’m going to do is close the Google classroom tab and SCHOOL YEAR’S OVER, but it’s not like the big end of school and see all of your friends as you leave the parking lot for the last time, we had that on March 13th, but none of us knew it was the last day of school."
Maddie still can’t believe how things have progressed the past couple of months. "It's crazy because it doesn't even feel real, because every day is the same thing."
Maddie thought she'd be posing for pictures for that sacred rite of passage, her senior prom. Instead, she is she's being featured in an article by the Baltimore Sun.
"I told them about the prom and how it got cancelled and how I bought a dress that I really liked and that I didn't get to wear it."
There's a lot of things that Maddie didn't get to do.
"I play field hockey and softball, see here’s my field hockey shirt, field hockey season was fine because it’s in the fall, but...our softball season got completely cancelled."
Who knows when the fields at Clarksburg High School will be used again?
Another thing that Maddie missed, “We were supposed to have Senior Skip Day and all that...now we've had senior skip the past two months."
Maddie told WUSA9 that through all of this she has a greater appreciation for her family and she's learned to live life to the fullest.
"Nothing is promised. I didn’t think March 13th was the last time I’d walk down the hallways at Clarksburg. I didn’t think it would be my last chance to play on Clarksburg’s fields. I didn't think any of that was going to end," Maddie said. "Live every day like it’s your last. Hopefully that crazy happy ending is coming soon because I could really use that."
Maddie will be attending Miami university in Oxford, Ohio, in the fall majoring in strategic communication. Hopefully, there will be an occasion there that she could wear that beautiful dress. We wish her well.