There’s something special about Parker in the spring. Around this time of year, Parker’s air conditioning is turned on. Students start to forgo the normal cafeteria tables and eat their lunches on balconies. People spend their H-breaks playing football on the turf.

After six months of grey slush, the sun seems to automatically enlighten everybody’s mood. For seniors, every class and conversation is coated with a thin layer of nostalgia.

As every school year seems to foster excitement for end-of-the year festivities, the same goes with the entire high school experience. We seniors have all been waiting for these last months together for the past three and a half years. We watched seniors above us slowly say goodbye to their second home. We waited patiently, in anticipation for  our turn.

It is a harsh reality that  we won’t say goodbye to Parker in the way the seniors before us have. A lot of us have cried, angry and upset. We have too. To be blunt: this sucks.

It’s easy to count the things we miss. We miss Graderoom. Looking back, one thing is for sure: the class of 2020 knows how to fill a room. Every Wednesday morning, as the Harris Center filled with bodies, the energy increased. Our Graderooms, for better or for worse, were never silent. What can we say? We all loved being in each other’s company. 

We miss shouting each other out from across the Harris Center. We miss casually hanging out on the fourth floor hallway. We miss “not eating” on the chairs. 

But as we reflected on our Parker experience over these past months at home (we’ve had a lot of time), one thing is clear. When we look back on our three and half years at school, we don’t miss the desks, chairs, and carpets. We miss the people. Sure, we miss places in Parker like the fourth floor chairs, the wavy hallway, and the library study rooms. But, now more than ever, we’ve realized that these places are nothing without the people we share them with.

Some people only share their high school experience with a close group of friends. We were lucky. Throughout the years, we grew, laughed, struggled, and formed a strong class-wide bond.

 We love looking back on the big moments like 12 Days Morning Ex and Senior Scaries. With that said, it’s the casual conversations between classes, lounging around the chairs after school–––– the smaller, barely discernible moments of connection we miss the most. 

So we guess this is just a really long way of saying thank you, Class of 2020. Thank you for being our Parker experience. Thank you for being our favorite people, and making Parker our favorite place.