Reflections On A Lost Senior Year With Hope For The Future
Emma Cockrum was in her second week of quarantine when her father discovered an old bike behind their house.
And that bicycle turned out to be a gift: With school closed at East Ascension High School in Gonzales, La., bike riding for Emma became a way of coping with the loss of the rest of her senior year.
"I would say the first two to three weeks we were out of school, I was not the most fun person to be around. I was a ticking time bomb," says the 18-year-old, who's headed to Northwestern State University in the fall. "One minute, I would be fine and dandy, and then the next minute, I would be crying."
As she pedaled through her neighborhood each day, those bike rides forced her to stop and take in the world around her — and they became the inspiration behind these words in her valedictorian speech:
"I got to see life happening. I saw families spending time together, like children playing basketball on their driveways, or fathers teaching their own kids to ride bikes. When we stop to observe our surroundings, we are oftentimes provided with new perspectives on our situations."
The coronavirus pandemic has caused many high school graduations to be replaced with virtual, drive-in and other alternative ceremonies. And so, the tradition of valedictorians and salutatorians addressing their classmates at this huge moment in their young lives is a little different this year.
NPR spoke with a few
