SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Before Calvin Yang walks across the stage at Hayward High School on Saturday, he’ll remind the Class of 2022 about collective memories that only pandemic graduates can claim. Like the “nauseating loading screen we have all experienced at some point” during months of remote learning. And the “strong sense of resiliency” they developed through “persistence and strength, arguably more so than any former class.”
Seniors from across the Bay Area have been graduating in recent weeks — in person — after a high school experience like none other. They attended school online while teaching themselves and their younger siblings, faced cancellations of proms and plays and pep rallies, advocated for racial justice and gun control, battled declining mental health while facing the loss of loved ones and the heightened trauma of the pandemic. And, of course, they made friends — virtually and in person — who sympathize with their shared experience.
But unlike the two classes before them, members of the Class of 2022 have been able to walk across the stage over these last two weeks for a final, bittersweet celebration.
Their speeches capture it all.
“Now, I could start off today talking to you about how COVID derailed our high school experience. But that’s not our story,” student body president Sabrina Woo told graduates from Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, who were donning mortar board caps proudly decorated with college logos and song lyrics from Megan Thee Stallion’s “Real Hot Girl S—” and N*SYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye.”
“We left Northgate’s halls in 2020 with something to prove. And equipped with the perseverance only a year online could give us to return to Northgate as the Class of ’22 — seniors. This has been our year. If a global pandemic can’t keep us down, nothing can.”
Reflecting on her own junior year, Woo joked to the crowd, “Now, I’m pretty sure I had classes with some of you, but I mean, who can say for sure with all those cameras turned off?”
The Bay Area News Group attended several graduation ceremonies — from Northgate High to Hercules High to Overfelt and Foothill in San Jose — and listened in on this unique class’s final words. The common themes: A tumultuous high school career leading into an uncertain, but hopeful, future. Moments of silence for the victims of the massacre in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. And tributes to those who did and did not make it to graduation day.
In East San Jose at Overfelt High School’s 60th annual commencement, families watched through proud tears, hoisting signs adorning their beloved seniors’ faces, as principal Vito Chiala reminded graduates that coming from the low-income community and graduating from the school is a “strength.”
Senior Class President Galaxy Guendulain-Guardado started her speech with a moment of silence for the victims of the Texas school shootings at Robb Elementary. Their class has felt the anxiety of school shootings — but had a brief respite when school transitioned to distance learning.
“Today feels surreal. Surreal because we are no longer victims of a chaotic world, but rather survivors of change,” Guendulain-Guardado, said, reflecting on the pandemic, local wildfires and the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I remember I was excited to go to high school. ‘Those are the best days of your life!’ they said. But little did we know we were going to fall through the cracks caused by a pandemic, natural disasters and direct oppression. On March 13, 2020, we were all excited that the schools were going to shut down. We thought, ‘We get to hang out with our friends. We get to sleep in!’ but that didn’t go as planned .
“Distance learning was our new form of education. Imagine me educating myself and my siblings. Better yet, my parents being my teachers?’ Then we get one of the biggest wildfires in Northern California not allowing us to breathe the only air we have. Talk about mental health.
“I want to highlight that we have learned how to overcome obstacles mentally, physically and emotionally,” she said.
The school’s valedictorian Zanna Sek offered the class a warm reminder: “We’ve come a long way together. During freshman year we thought the school was big. Now that we finally came back to school in-person senior year; it seems like the freshman have become smaller. Though it was us who have grown.”
At Foothill High School’s graduation, some of the graduates represented the Mexican culture in their flags and graduation caps, and many celebrated an accomplishment they felt defied the odds. Many thanked their families and mentors for their support.
And on Wednesday night, before swaths of Hercules High graduates in light blue and black gowns walked off the football field to the song “Big Steppin’,” student speakers shared a similar theme: The future from here is unclear.
“I don’t know what’s next. Although the future may seem scary,” Kiana Amista Pinkard, the class valedictorian, told the crowd, “what we have experienced would seem just as terrifying to anyone from the past.”
Yang, the Hayward High valedictorian and student body president, will get his turn this weekend. He’s ready to inspire his classmates.
“Before we close the final chapter of this breathtaking 12-year journey,” he plans to tell them, “I only implore all of you to reflect upon your own internal ‘craziness’ and be the GOAT that you want yourself to be.”
____
