Opinion: 6 San Diego seniors on what it’s like graduating in the pandemic: ‘Every emotion there is’

A year after the class of 2020 graduated from college and high school having spent several months learning remotely, the class of 2021 graduates after learning almost exclusively online. Some ceremonies are being held in person as students brace for the uncertainty to come. Below, college and high school graduates with San Diego ties share their thoughts on this unusual year and the ones ahead.

Briana Jauregui is a graduate of Southwestern College majoring in nanoengineering.

(Briana Jauregui)

Briana Jauregui is a graduate of Southwestern College majoring in nanoengineering, and lives in Chula Vista.

When I transitioned from in-person to online classes, it was all new and different. As a STEM major my biggest concern was not having my laboratory classes and it was very difficult to get adapted to this new way of learning. In the beginning, I was very unmotivated, taking science, technology, engineering and math classes at home and doing everything from my room was very hard and I wasn’t able to concentrate. My Southwestern College experience consisted of on-campus classes for a year and a half and online classes for the other year and a half.

I remembered spring 2020, when we taught we were going to be back in person after two weeks of “vacation,” but no one knew what was coming. That semester was hard for me, and if I am being honest, I suffered a lot of anxiety. I felt lost and frustrated because I couldn’t get that concentration and motivation that I had when I was on campus. But life is all about adapting to new things and situations, so I decided to give the best of me from this new “way of life.”

In summer 2020, I got a big opportunity and a friend invited me to join the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers as a secretary, and all I can say is that joining a club helped me so much to connect and get involved in an online environment — but also I realized that I wasn’t alone. I met a lot of new people who were in the same situation that I was, and we helped each other.

The online environment stopped me from doing things that I wished I could have done, such as attending laboratories or being involved in campus events, but also it gave me a lot newer experiences that I wouldn’t have been able to do in-person such as completing two academies’ programs at NASA L’SPACE Academy and the online course of NASA Community College.

The graduation ceremony was something that I didn’t expect. I thought I was going to be able to graduate in a normal way, but it didn’t happen. At first, I was sad, but I’d like to think of this graduation as something historic that we didn’t expect to happen. Also the school made it very interactive and remarkable.

I’ll be transferring to UC San Diego as a nanoengineering major and the transition is also a new experience because I’ve been attending transfer events that were supposed to be in-person but everything is online now. The fact that it is a new school makes it a little bit harder to have everything online, but schools have found a lot of new ways to make communication easier, which has helped me a lot. I am so excited to start this new journey at UC San Diego and an internship at Space Micro during the summer. After all, I found a way to get the best from online classes. In the end, every step was worth it and after a big transition in spring 2020, little by little, I was able to continue with my studies even though it was in a very different environment.

Lucia Rivera, Bonita Vista High School ,Class of 2021

(Lucia Rivera)

Lucia Rivera is a senior at Bonita Vista High School. She lives in Chula Vista.

The week before my June 3 graduation, I kept doing everything I was supposed to: readying my cap and gown, finishing assignments, passing out my little senior pictures. I even began hybrid learning two days a week, logging onto my calls from classrooms, not my bedroom.

The fluorescent lights seemed much brighter than before, but they let me see my classmates clearly despite their multicolored masks. I’ll admit I got a little lost on the first day, but I relished getting a taste of the past.

Yet I know myself well enough to know that now the reality of everything will crash down on me. My senior year really did just end. I will be leaving for college in two and a half months. Soon, I won’t even be a legal minor anymore!

And while I try to prepare myself for that upcoming emotional roller coaster, as a high school graduate, I’m not sure I really can. In non-pandemic time, seniors first get a dose of that feeling when the year starts and they come back from summer, suddenly the oldest students on campus. As the second semester continues, seniors traditionally experience the many “lasts” of high school. From their last sports season to their last school assembly, everything is drawing to a close.

This year, however, for me and many of my peers, that path is running parallel to another uncomfortable trajectory. While our high school careers and childhoods end, we’re having countless pandemic “firsts.”

I had my first senior-year class on campus on May 12. A week before that I saw my classmates in person for the first time since March 2020. Now it appears more and more San Diegans will be having their first safely unmasked gatherings in the coming months. These actions and experiences shouldn’t feel monumental, but they do.

I am reconciling all the emotions that accompany graduating from high school and preparing for college in another state, and I am also trying to emerge from my quarantine life. When I picked up my stoles for graduation, I was also getting used to seeing my teachers face to face. And as I attended my final classes, I began to remember what it was like to leave the house. And all of that, quite frankly, is stressful.

Yes, I’m thrilled that all teenagers can get vaccinated and that the fall semester will likely be in-person. I’m also ecstatic to get the thumbs up to reunite with friends before we all go our separate ways.

Yet these changes will take some getting used to for all of us. It has become normal to talk to icons and names in class, and to repeat my muffled sentences twice for my hard-of-hearing grandparents. Distance learning and pandemic life is the norm, shortcomings and all. Just because it was hard doesn’t mean transitioning out of it will be easy.

I’m trying to be ready.

The class of 2021 threw our caps in the air and bid our teachers farewell — hopefully we’ll just be easing back into our pre-pandemic lives.

Armando Sepulveda, Class of 2021, San Diego State University, majoring in political science.

(Armando Sepulveda)

Armando Sepulveda is a graduate of San Diego State University, majoring in political science. He lives in South Bay San Diego.

When I began my journey at San Diego State University, I didn’t quite imagine that I would be graduating at the end of a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic. Oftentimes the events of someone’s formative years determine the outlook they have in life, and this generation of graduates will be shaped and defined by the hardships they faced due to COVID-19.

I was prepared to finish off my senior year as vice president of external relations, a role defined in adversity, surprises and service and a position I had worked to achieve for the past four years. But being a student leader in the midst of a global pandemic isn’t something you can prepare for. Actually just being a student in a global pandemic isn’t something you can prepare for either.

As a student leader, I had to get started from the get-go, working hard to ensure that we could manage a completely digital “Rock the Vote” campaign and ensure that students were prioritized in the university’s fall and spring planning. As a student, I had to overcome personal struggles, a lack of a work-life balance, the inability to see friends and taking my entire senior year digitally. In a sense, when I advocated for students, I often was advocating for myself, making these issues much more personal to me.

Armando Sepulveda on San Diego News Fix:

Like everyone, it was hard for me to transition from work hours to school hours and then again to personal hours because everything we did was now on a screen and in my home. Seeing friends meant logging onto Discord. Going to a meeting was now scheduling a Zoom call. And going to a lecture was now ... watching a recorded Zoom call. The professors I had always did their best scheduling live Zoom lectures and kept their classes engaged, but learning online for many, myself included, was still challenging beyond anything you could prepare for.

I had some semblance of a normal life. I had a wonderful girlfriend who kept me sane during the pandemic, a best friend who I dragged out for some afternoon runs, other best friends who would call to check in on me, and a mom and dad who were my rocks.

Not to mention my sister who always was proud of me and a dog who never once left my side and was gladly taking all the extra hours I was home now. I had close friends and advisers in Associated Students who motivated me on some pretty serious lows throughout the semester. Truth be told, I was fortunate in just how much support I had this past year.

That is not to say I didn’t struggle with some serious bouts of isolation, anxiety and depression. Being a senior amid all of this made it difficult to not be remorseful about the year I could’ve had, and having struggled with mental health issues before, I was worried whether or not I would be able to handle everything. But with my support system and my resolve, I made it to the finish line.

What’s weird to me is that while my college chapter is closing, I feel rather optimistic on the future ahead. The pandemic appears to be receding and life is returning to normal, I’m prepping for some half marathons, and I graduated at Petco Park from a university I’ve known and loved all my life. There are still so many more years of growth to come, and I’m here for it.

Aleah Jarin is a graduate of San Diego State University majoring in journalism

(Aleah Jarin)

Aleah Jarin is an SDSU graduate who majored in journalism. She lives in Manteca.

“I’m graduating during a pandemic” is something I never thought I’d hear myself say, but here we are. Just in this month alone, I’ve felt every emotion there is and have struggled to express what it means to be leaving my college years behind.

While graduating during this time is historic and a major highlight in my 22 years of life, every now and then I think of how I experienced campus life at San Diego State University for only one semester and a half.

When I transferred to SDSU from San Diego Mesa College in fall 2019, I was so excited to experience the larger university campus life and have the “true” college experience. I was looking forward to sitting in large lecture halls, finding my favorite study spot on campus, having overnight study sessions in the library, and attending frequent football and basketball games.

I was ready to experience all the little things that make up college life for myself.

While I did get to experience some of those things for a short time, I still think about the missed opportunities and the college memories that were never made due to the pandemic.

Taking college courses in general can be tough, but taking college courses in a virtual setting makes it that much harder to focus and stay motivated. I completed half of the spring 2020 semester and all of the 2020-2021 academic year online; this was definitely not how I envisioned my learning to go.

At times I wondered, will I really learn anything? Am I going to retain any of this material? Am I even still a college student?

I questioned the value of my education and worried about how this would affect me in the long run.

Although this experience was challenging and came with many obstacles, the optimist in me can’t help but acknowledge all the positive things that came out of this.

I learned a lot about myself and my limits, took time to re-evaluate my academic and personal goals and gained an immeasurable amount of resilience and perseverance. Overall, I learned to be more present and not be so hard on myself. I’m also most proud of all the things I was able to accomplish with the National Association of Black Journalists chapter at SDSU, the student organization I founded in October.

We held many guest speaker meetings with professional journalists from all areas of journalism and organized a panel discussion with a variety of working journalists from the East and West Coasts. None of this would have happened at the same caliber if we were on campus.

As I reflect on my time as a senior at SDSU, I’m proud of how hard I pushed through and how I did everything I could to make my college time meaningful. Your college experience is what you make it, and I can proudly say I made every minute of my time at SDSU count, even during a pandemic.

I’m both proud and honored to be graduating magna cum laude and receiving my bachelor of arts degree in journalism. Congratulations to the Class of 2021! We did it, we made it!

Bryant Huang in his graduation robe at Duke University.

(Courtesy photo)

Bryant Huang is a graduate of Duke University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and computer science. He lives in Carmel Valley.

Graduation gave us a glimpse into normalcy. While we were still socially distanced, limited to bringing two guests, and masked up during our ceremony at Duke University, seeing everyone together and gathered for a celebration was reminiscent of the university-wide events that we used to all enjoy together.

It was by no means a normal graduation, but we were able to come together and celebrate each other’s resilience and tenacity over the last year. To finally be together for graduation brought a great sense of togetherness and happiness that we hadn’t experienced in over a year.

My last normal Duke experience was the Duke-University of North Carolina basketball game in March 2020, when we were packed like sardines in the bleachers. I haven’t seen that many of us together since that game, and just thinking about being that close together is such a foreign concept nowadays.

I’ll never forget cracking jokes with my friends during the entire ceremony or sprinting to the aisle to catch a glimpse of John Legend, our commencement speaker, walking toward the stage. A proper graduation gave us a chance to say goodbye and see you later to our friends, a chance to close this chapter in our lives together. I’m so grateful that we had this opportunity to process these thoughts and feelings together and get closure from our amazing four years at Duke.

Our graduation marked the end of a quite different senior year. Some of my friends didn’t return to campus in the fall, most of my classes were held virtually, and the social scene changed drastically. Even so, we still had the best year of our lives made up of many days and nights exploring Durham, North Carolina; the flexibility of virtual classes; weekend trips to different cities, and just being together with those I care most about. I will forever cherish all the memories that were made during this year.

Even though it has been such a great year and graduation experience, there are still constant reminders of the pandemic. My friends and I let go of hopes of a southeast Asia graduation tour a long time ago. What seems like a no-brainer trip to Taiwan to visit my family is burdened by travel restrictions, quarantines and lockdowns — even as a Taiwanese citizen. I’m starting full-time work in August and don’t really know when the next time that I’ll be able to see my relatives will be.

Nonetheless, I’m still hopeful of normalcy and grateful for all the experiences I have had. I was able to fly my family from San Diego to Durham to show them where home has been for the last four years and walk across the field in my cap and gown. My friends and I are all vaccinated and about to leave on a grad trip to Hawaii. So while graduating during the pandemic has not been ideal, it has still been an amazing experience and I wouldn’t have traded the past year for anything else.

Diana Flores Valdivia is the valedictorian of the graduating class of 2021 at Chula Vista High School. She will attend Cornell University and major in computer science.

(Diana Flores Valdivia)

Diana Flores Valdivia is the valedictorian of the graduating class of 2021 at Chula Vista High School. She will attend Cornell University and major in computer science. She lives in Chula Vista.

From a young age, my parents instilled in my sister and me the value of education. Living in Mexico City, my passion for knowledge was nurtured by chemistry and biology kits for kids during birthdays or Día de Los Reyes Magos. I had certainty and a plan for the future: pursuing a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and attending the National Autonomous University of Mexico or Instituto Politécnico Nacional. However, all those plans changed when my parents decided to move our family to the U.S. in 2016.

Despite the financial and cultural challenges posed by our immigrant status and the new instability, my parents’ goal to offer us the best chance to reach our goals and my conviction to pursue higher education transformed every obstacle into an opportunity to grow and evolve academically and as an individual.

As I began my journey at Chula Vista High School, I chose not to let my English learning status hold me back. Rather I encouraged myself to work harder toward English proficiency. At Chula Vista High, I found people who believed in me and supported my ambitions. Mrs. Duarte — rest in peace — allowed me to take my first Advanced Placement class freshman year, despite being freshly out of English language development classes and still a novice with one semester of regular classes under my belt. AP computer science principles helped me explore my abilities and motivate me to take more advanced courses and figure out what I am passionate about. By exposing myself to diverse subjects, I not only grew my knowledge in STEM courses but developed an interest in the arts and social science. In becoming more well-rounded academically, I discovered ways to employ my knowledge in various subjects in my future career path in computer science.

Moreover, interaction with my peers both inside the classroom and in sports led me to make meaningful connections. Many of these connections have played an important role in my high school career. With friends who support my concerns for my community, I formed the environmental club We Mean Green to spread awareness about the current environmental crisis. Our team organized monthly beach and park clean-ups through a partnership with Living Coast Discovery Center. I noticed members participating in activities were more likely to take action if they felt involved and like they were having an impact. We Mean Green broadened my vision of the application of technology in environmental causes such as the use of artificial intelligence to monitor air quality and determine pollution sources fast and accurately, monitor species non-invasively, and decrease the carbon footprint.

My high school education has allowed me to see the countless possibilities when a group of hard-working and supportive individuals meet paths to share their passions and perspectives, which coalesce into change for communities. The availability of diverse courses, clubs and sports has helped my peers and me chart our paths after high school. I experienced firsthand my ability to use my education and knowledge to lead groups of people toward a common cause, inform others and be an active member of society.