Today was quite a day! I went back to school for the first time fully in person. The first ‘different feeling’ I had was when I got stuck in standstill traffic on Concord Road, at the Plympton Road intersection. I have not seen traffic like that around Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School since before March 2020. As I continued driving toward the Lincoln Road intersection, I was shocked to see even more traffic building up! When I turned into the LS parking lot, it was nearly 60% full. Getting there around 7:50 AM, I was convinced that I’d be one of the first people to park my car!

I got a spot right around where I most like to park — in the row that is a straight shot to the AB connector — and sat in the car, gulping down a full 32 ounce hydro flask of water, eating up my Chocolate Brownie Larabar, and soaking in NPR’s Morning Edition. 

The lot filled, and students funneled into the school through the school’s most used entrance, the AB connector doors on the 200 level. 

When I turned off my car’s engine, I got out of the car, put on my mask, and giggled… Hearing so many voices out loud at once was gratifying, yet felt foreign. I grabbed my bag and proceeded forward on my journey to enter our school building. 

Along the way, I was greeted by Ms. Hodin, several welcoming student leaders, and two unicorns! I also spotted some simplistic yet spectacular signage to the right of the sidewalk, which made the walk all the better. 

Inside were more magnificent student leaders, helping younger students to find their way, while simultaneously gracing the soon-to-be-graduates with their smiles and kind words. 

I went on to return my math at-home learning kit to the math office, and then I walked to Postcolonial Literature taught by Ms. Garfield. I immediately gasped upon entering the room… finally upon seeing some classmates, I expressed the complicated yet happy thoughts in my head: I was so happy to be at school, yet it felt foreign, new, exciting and neurologically stimulating. 

I enjoyed writing a poem for the school-wide pandemic poetry project during English, and I enjoyed even more hearing the chatter of voices in the packed-to-the-brim classroom.

At the end of the first block of the day, I cleaned my space, and started walking to Physics. As I reflect on my journey through those wide halls, I smile. Once again, the majority of us are coming together to the same space to achieve something. We’re here to achieve more than academic experience… we’re here for each other. 

I continued to admire the beauty of a plethora of human vocal chords all vibrating at once as I proceeded to Physics, and while I was sitting in Ms. Bennett’s Physics classroom, too. 

I left LS after my second class to get some groceries and have lunch. When I came back, I enjoyed the rest of my classes, and I continued to process all of the ‘new’ sensations around me. 

We had a day full of new beginnings on Monday, April 26th. New chapters began. However, we’re still right in the middle of many other chapters. Systemic racism still exists. The planet is getting hotter every day. People are still without housing and food.

This is an exciting time for many, yet we must not loose sight of our responsibility to foster caring and cooperative relationships with each other, our local communities, and out global communities. Hold those you love close, and treat those you don’t know so well with kindness, too. 

Seniors, we’re on the ‘home stretch,’ as some say. Live in the present during the last few pages of this chapter of our lives.