Saying Goodbye to High School

Garrett Garbinski Interviews the Seniors

Gavin, Connor, Alex, Sozon, and Louis

Ethan Madura

Gateway Community College

Garrett Garbinski, Contributor

This past year has been one crazy ride. All of the students have shown extreme perseverance, but one class has taken a bigger toll than the rest of us. This year’s senior class has been strong through all of the curveballs that Covid-19 has thrown at them. They started off their last year of high school coming back from online learning and having to adapt to completely new rules and regulations. They missed out on special events their junior year like prom, winter playoffs, the whole spring sports season, and the most missed one of them all, Junior Portfolio. These seniors have shown incredible spirit and teamwork through their four years at Morgan. I decided to ask them some questions to learn more about their experience here at Morgan.

Garett Garbinski under arbor
Garrett ponders high school without the seniors

To make them think about the good things about Morgan during senior week, I first asked everyone, “What was your favorite memory from your 4 years at Morgan?” A common answer for this question was the school events. Louis Bradley stated, “I’ve always had a lot of fun at the pep rallies and the events that brought the bond between the classes.” Nori Lopez had a similar response stating, “My freshman year when boys soccer won states because it was such a fun feeling out in the stands supporting my team.” This goes to show how great of an experience Morgan can be when we all come together with school spirit. 

A trickier question that took some more creativity to answer was, “If you could describe your experience in one word, what would it be?” We had some good responses as Zach Johnson described his experience as “electric” compared to Abby Eydman’s “magical” experience. Alex Urban had a strong belief that Morgan offered him a “quality” four years.

class 2021 UConn
Nori and friends head to UConn

Since it is the last few weeks of their high school careers, I had them reminisce about the past. One question I was eager to get answers to was, “How does it feel to be on the last road of high school?” My favorite response was from Nori Lopez. She said, “It’s going to be really sad when I won’t be with Garret every day.” I know that’s going to be an extremely difficult challenge for every senior as they go off to college this fall. I could tell that Alex Urban had mixed emotions when he said, “It feels good. I’m ready to be done, but at the same time I’m a bit sentimental as I’ve had a great experience and am sad it’s coming to a close.” 

Class 2021 Quinnipiac
Abby leaves behind Morgan for Quinnipiac

Although it’s nice to hear their feelings about finishing high school, I felt that this last question not only gave these seniors something to think about but provided the youth of Morgan with some great advice as well. They were each asked, “From your experience at Morgan, what would you tell your freshman self?” Abby Eydman said she would tell her freshman self, “It’s important to keep working hard and stay true to yourself even when your friend groups change. Also, use your teachers for extra help.” Another excellent response was from Louis Bradley. Everyone going to Morgan should put this in their memory bank as he stated, “You should’ve tried more things because this is a very caring community, and people will welcome you and help you as long as you try to succeed.” I loved asking these questions as I saw all these seniors’ smiling faces as they reminisced about high school and gave thoughtful answers and even advice.

Senior week is a time for the seniors to think about their best memories at Morgan and hang on to the last moments of their high school careers. Not only is it a time to share memories, but to give advice to younger students as they leave these underclassmen to become the next classes to have their own Morgan experience. Here at Morgan, we have a saying, “We are Morgan. We are Family.” Just like they say, friends are temporary, but family is forever.