First off, thank you to everybody who’s made it possible for us to be here today by helping and supporting us along the way: the principals, the teachers, the coaches, and everyone else at Waterford High School. And last, but certainly not least, to the parents, who have been extremely supportive through these rather — let’s say — unconventional times.

With formalities out of the way, here we are; the class of 2020. Or better put given the circumstances: here we aren’t. Or at least haven’t been for the past couple months. I don't know about all of you, but all this time in quarantine has made me realize that I’ve been taking for granted being part of such an awesome class. I mean, we’ve done a lot of stuff and it’s been an absolute blast. Notably, we took our football team from being not too hot to winning the ECC championship this year. And technically we are still the defending champs for the state basketball tournament. Also for Model UN we brought home two awards from our trip to Yale. And all of our musical ensembles sent people to Eastern Region and All State festivals. And who knows what other accolades we would have won if we had been able to have our spring events. And of course between ourselves we organized the senior assassin game. It had a good run until the administration deemed water a bit too disruptive to be allowed on school grounds.

You know, I’d prefer to simply reminisce about our time in high school during these few minutes given to me, but the reality is our senior year has not been all sunshine and rainbows, and I don’t think it appropriate to completely ignore the elephant that trampled all over our senior year. And as an 18-year-old kid, I don’t get many chances to talk where everyone more or less has to listen to me. I’ll gladly be the first to say that this whole coronavirus pandemic thing is just awful. Back in January, we all first saw it on the news, what happened in China and then Italy. I personally wasn’t too worried about it at the time, you know? I mean, we live in the United States, the biggest world power. I’m sure we’ll be fine, we have time to take precautions and make sure we can contain the virus. Fast forward a few months to April and we have every major news outlets telling people to NOT DRINK BLEACH after the President suggests we inject disinfectant to fight the virus. It was at that moment, when I lost all hope of salvaging our senior year.

Twelve years. For 12 years, we have been told to look forward to the last few months of senior year. Senior Skip Day. Senior Picnic. Our Senior Prank. Senior Prom. And of course our graduation as the Class of 2020. And we drew the short end of the straw, having all those to-be memories put out of reach for us. And forever, too.

None of us thought that Thursday, March 12, which was only a half-day, would be the last time we would step foot in Waterford High School as students. And I wasn’t even there that day. I was at the doctor’s getting blood drawn. But all I can say is that I sure do not wish these circumstances upon any other senior class in the future.

But where am I getting at with all this? Plain and simple, we have to realize that we are going to have to be the ones that fix this mess. None of this is our fault, but it sure has become our problem, and we have to deal with it. No one else is going to do it. The current people in power have shown us that they have absolutely no idea how to handle a critical situation. And that’s giving them the benefit of the doubt. It could very well be that they simply don’t care.

This isn’t a storm we can wait out either. The reality is this pandemic is going to have consequences and effects we’re going to be feeling for years to come; things aren’t magically going to go back to normal after we reopen everything. I won’t sugar coat things, the near future looks rough for us. A lot of us are going to be spendings tens of thousands of dollars a year, likely going into some sort of debt for college at a time where we don’t even know how many jobs will be available in four years' time. That is why it is a necessity for our class to take charge and shape ourselves into people that will make an impact on this world. Failing to do that is not an option, we don’t have that luxury. Because the alternative is a future where society remains stagnant. I want to believe that we will not allow that. I want to have hope for the future, that we will recover and come out stronger. After all, things can’t get much worse. And I admit, there’s not much to believe in right now. Jaded politicians, greedy corporations, they don’t exactly inspire hope. But I sure as hell believe in this class. This isn’t an end, this is only the beginning.

We have our work cut out for us in the future. But they say hard times make strong people. And I fail to see a world where our class isn’t up for the challenge. We are strong, individually, but even more so as a collective. So how about it Class of 2020? Let this mark the beginning of our legacy. Let us not be remembered as a passive generation. Let not our mistakes be those of inaction. Let them not say, in hindsight we could’ve done more, because as we know: hindsight is 2020.

(Lucas Brennan-Almaraz is the Valedictorian of the Waterford High School Class of 2020.)