Distance learning was challenging at best, and utter hell at worst, but do you know what I actually appreciated about it? We had to look at one another. Even if we were just on a screen… I learned more about what your lives were like seeing you in your tiny boxes, at home, than I ever did sitting next to you in class. Our bubbles got smaller. The isolation became literal and not just figurative anymore. But going through this pandemic, and grieving together, brought us all closer. I promised myself this year I’d stop dealing in silver linings, but I guess that’s one I can’t deny.

But when all this is behind us, do you know who I’ll be most jealous of? The freshmen, sophomores, and juniors at Winchester. They get to take what they learned about themselves this year and apply it to the rest of their high school experience. Just like us, they’ve learned that their health is more important than their social status. And that a few best friends are better than a thousand followers. And that there aren’t enough filters in the world to make a global pandemic more pleasing to the eye.

They’ve learned that the little blessings in life include eating pizza in a crowded quad and getting to sit less than six feet away from their friends. At least for a while, they’ll get to come back and experience those simple pleasures, without taking them for granted. And when the day comes, they will get to sign one another’s yearbooks and hug goodbye. They get closure on this experience.

I don’t know what will become of us after the pandemic ends. I don’t know how long we’ll feel the ripple effect and whether we will grow up mistrustful of our leaders, terrified of germs, anxious in large crowds—even once we have a vaccine to keep us safe and healthy. The truth is, this has no end. Our future high school reunions will forever be incomplete, and that’s not something we can change. But I hope we’ll be stronger for it.

Everyone says our generation has been coddled and that we will suffer the consequences of helicopter parenting, but I call bullshit on that. No one gave us trophies for getting through this pandemic, and none of us asked for one. We didn’t get through it unscathed, but I believe we will measure every challenging experience against this one. I believe the class of 2023 will be remembered for our resilience and for our ability to gracefully navigate the hits and misses of life. There was one among us who knew that before all this happened: Andrew Nanaka.

I’d like to end with some advice from my friend Andrew. This was a text he sent me junior year, when I kept screwing up my part in marching band rehearsal before the homecoming game: