I’m someone who went into Winchester with the highest expectations and felt let down and left out at every turn. I’m someone who felt the pressure of pretending like I didn’t care, when I cared a lot. I am someone who often tore others down to make myself feel better. I’m someone who used filters on Instagram, so you would think I was more attractive. I am someone who refreshed all my social-media feeds, desperate for more “likes.” I am someone who was jealous of all your insanely creative TikToks and wasted too much of my own time unsuccessfully trying to go viral.

I’m someone who’s felt so bad about myself that I had to get A’s in all my classes, so I could have one reason to feel superior. I am someone who has to pluck my eyebrows and wax my upper-lip hair because kids can be cruel. I am someone who loves my family, even when I don’t understand them and they don’t understand me. I am someone who misses my best friend and has been known to be jealous of her at the same time. I am someone who wishes I was invited to your party and is still angry at everything your party cost us. I am someone who, even today, desperately craves your approval. I am someone who feels like she’s learned nothing and learned everything from this year. Does any of that resonate? Is it possible you know me already because we’re not actually all that different? Is it possible I know you, too?

What makes me sad is that for the last three years and two months of physically being present in the halls and classrooms of Winchester High School, none of us really saw one another. Whether it was because we were staring straight ahead at a teacher and a chalkboard, or whether we were too busy texting on our phones or scrolling carefully curated social media feeds—most of us failed to really get to know the class of ’23.

Instead, we stayed in our bubbles. And then, on an ordinary Thursday in October, we were abruptly sent on our way. We didn’t get to sign one another’s yearbooks or hug goodbye or promise we’d keep in touch and have a great summer. We didn’t get to walk past the buildings of our school, saying goodbye to every brick and tree and mural. We thought we’d be back in two weeks, but we never returned.