This month, Tri-City News asked high school valedictorians in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody to describe what it's like to graduate in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic — and without an official ceremony.
Here's what Jacob Wadhwani of Terry Fox Secondary wrote:
"To be bleak, Grade 12 sucked.
"Senior year is the most difficult year in high school from an education perspective and, it was made ten-folds harder because we all had to go through it alone.
"Even though the whole world was in the same boat with regards to COVID-19, it still felt like you were going through it alone due to the disconnect in the school community caused by the pandemic's restrictions.
"Graduating without an official commencement ceremony is like adding insult to injury.
"We go to school for four years and, in the last year, the year that’s supposed to be the most fun, a pandemic strikes and all the fun things that were supposed to happen can’t anymore.
"You don’t even get a chance to recognize the achievement of getting through not only this crazy year but all of high school."
