I still wake up like it’s a bad dream, and then I realize it’s actually happening.”

Ella Hanley

They are like every other senior class: they are athletes and academics, artists, community organizers, and leaders. Many of them are all of these things and more. They have hopes and dreams, and plans … so many plans. And for the first time in memory, a global crisis has changed those plans, completely and irrevocably.

They all have different perspectives, and the pandemic has taken something different away from all of them. They are coming to terms with their losses, and building enthusiasm for their amended plans, but one thing they all seem to agree on is that virtual reality is no kind of reality at all, and while they may all be “in this together” nothing can ever replace the joys of simply being together.

Here are a few voices from Mt. Hope High School’s Class of 2020.

Sloan Simpson

Sloan is president of the Class of 2020, and in that role that he has been spearheading efforts to come up with an alternate plan for graduation. “We don’t have a lot figured out yet,” he said. “But we don’t want it to be virtual. We want the closure and celebration that we have worked for.”

It’s more than just the ceremony, scheduled for June 13. That day was just the end cap of a Senior Week that was meant to start with prom on June 5 and include traditional milestones like distribution of caps and gowns and yearbooks; a class trip, class night, and a senior class breakfast. All of these plans need to be reimagined, by Sloan and a committee that includes the rest of the executive committee, student volunteers, their class advisor, and administration — an administration in which Sloan has great faith.

“They really do care,” he said. “They have tried really hard, and I do believe we will eventually get something good out of this.”

Sloan admits that the full reality of losing out on events some four years in the planning has not really hit home yet. “I’m trying to stay as busy as possible,” he said, something that all of this added planning, on top of distance learning, has allowed him to do. He just this week committed to attending Providence College to study marketing or political science.

“Right after I committed, I received an email saying they will make a decision by July 1 about whether we they will be having a normal fall semester there, so now I’m stressed about that,” he said. “Obviously this is not just going to go away.”

“I’m trying to have a good outlook.”

Ella Hanley

A self-confessed type-A personality, Ella has long been a classroom standout, and was ranked in the top spot the last time class standings were released. Honorifics like valedictorian and salutatorian are not awarded until final grades are posted just days before graduation, but Ella is hopeful she will have a speaking role at graduation — whatever that day looks like.

Now she’s just not sure if that speech will be live or pre-recorded.

She also can’t take her eyes off the prize if she wants to maintain her standing, and that’s something that becomes increasingly more challenging as distance learning drags on. “I have to keep up, for myself,” she said. “But it’s definitely harder. There’s this sense that I think we all have of, why are we even doing this? We’ve put in so much, and now it’s all being taken away.”

“The teachers are doing their best but it’s so hard to stay motivated.”

For Ella, it was Gov. Gina Raimondo’s announcement last week that classes would not be resuming this year that really brought it home. “I guess I knew it was coming,” she said. “But I held out hope. Then the governor’s speech hit me and I cried for the rest of the afternoon.”

It all still feels pretty unreal. “I still wake up like it’s a bad dream, and then I realize it’s actually happening.”

“You don’t realize how much you enjoy the routines, and the small things, until they are taken away from you.”

Ella is planning to join the University of Virginia Class of 2024 and study biology, perhaps pre-med. Asked if she has heard anything about UVA’s plan for the fall semester, she (virtually) clapped her hands over her ears. “I can’t … no … I don’t want to talk about that,” she said. “We’ve already had the good part of our senior year taken away, and now we are moving on.”

London Camelo

“Other than time with family, I had school and baseball,” said London, the captain of Mt. Hope’s varsity baseball team. “Half my life has been taken away from me.”

London actually suffered two blows last week: first, hearing that Gov. Raimondo would not be reopening schools, then the following day, when the Rhode Island Interscholastic League cancelled its season as well.

“It was going to be our year,” he said. “We were eliminated in the quarterfinals last year, but we had a great team this year. Our whole starting lineup was returning players, with 9 or 10 seniors.”

When school was first transitioned to distance learning and London thought there was a chance that the spring sports season could be salvaged, he wrote a letter to the Interscholastic League and shared it with peers from other schools, as well at Mt. Hope Athletic Director Christy Belisle. “Ms. Belisle got it into the right hands, but once the governor called it, I knew it was over,” he said.

London is currently focused on prepping for his AP exams, which begin next week, and staying in shape with runs, strength training, and frequent visits with his brothers to the batting cage his father installed at his office. He’s looking forward to the fall at Roger Williams University, where he hopes to study biology with an eye toward pre-med, and of course, baseball.

“Fall ball is an important part of the schedule in college, so I am really hoping we can start on time,” he said. “I don’t want a late start, especially as a freshman.”

“I hope we can all find a way to make up for this lost time,” he said. “It’s such an important part of our lives.”

Georgia MacDougall

When the school year was put on hold in mid-March with the rescheduling of April break and then subsequent extensions of the state stay-at-home order, the Mt. Hope Masqueraders were about halfway through preparations for the spring musical, “Legally Blonde.” Georgia, a four-year veteran of the Masqueraders was, for the first time, cast as the lead, Elle.

“What was so heartbreaking is the way it ended so abruptly,” she said. “When we walked out the doors that Friday, we had no idea that we wouldn’t be back.”

Unlike Parker’s hopes for a resumed baseball season, Georgia quickly realized there would be no making up lost rehearsal time. “The show is so dance heavy, it’s not possible to just pick up where we left off, especially if we can’t even work together.” Nick Mendillo, the Mt. Hope theater director, has organized a remote guitar accompaniment and the actors hope to put together a virtual performance featuring some of the songs from the program — a nice effort, but of course nothing can replace the experience of taking to the stage.

At this point, Georgia is mostly resigned to what’s happened, but like her classmates, is concerned about the impact of this crisis on her next steps. “At this point we are all missing out on something,” she said. “But we are becoming ok with it. I’m looking forward to going to Rhode Island College to study psychology, and I plan to continue with theater.”

“If I can even go to college.”

Madison Rodrigues

“We’ve spent 13 years of our lives together, and now we are trying to recreate a ceremony,” Madison, Mt. Hope’s DECA chapter president, said of working on the committee to reframe graduation. “But we know it won’t be what we all want.”

Madison is trying to stay busy, with schoolwork, dog-walking, and taking over the family grocery shopping, but, like the rest of the Class of 2020, senior spring is not looking anything like what she imagined. “The last day of school, that Friday, wasn’t even a full day,” she said. “It was a half day, and we did not know it would be our last.”

“Then around the middle of the next week I just had this sense that things would not be getting back to normal.”

She is coming to terms with graduation not being what she and her classmates had hoped for, though she admits she is still holding onto a sliver of hope, but that is fading as the days go on.

“There’s not much we can do.”

She is optimistic about some of the ideas going around that reimagine prom as a reunion that would happen late in the year or some time next year. She thinks that would be fun, as long as they can get it in somewhere.

She hopes the fall will see her moving her things onto campus at Roger Williams, where she hopes to pursue legal studies, but all that she knows at this point is that June orientations have been cancelled. Between now and then, she is wondering what form her summer job will take, as she has spent many summers with Herreshoff as both a sailing instructor and events assistant. Events are cancelled, but she hopes that some semblance of a sailing program will come together.

“We are all just hoping for some normalcy this summer.”

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