Congratulations, Class of 2020!

Resident Feature by Stacey McEvoy

Recognizing that the start of senior year was the beginning of the end, we all started to be more kind and inclusive. We have been together for so long, so knowing that we were going our separate ways made us more warmhearted and friendly to one another.

It was also clear that our teachers seemed to respect us more. In class we were able to have conversations that were more sophisticated and complex, because we were seen as intelligent and capable young adults. In my English class we talked about feminism, climate change and race, which led to intense and engaging discussions that I really enjoyed.

It’s kind of strange, but throughout high school there were several times that I was wishing it was over, and now that it’s here I’m surprisingly very sad. I am going to miss my teachers and classmates so much! Senior year being abruptly cut short due to COVID-19 absolutely broke my heart. Even if we don’t get to go back and finish the year properly, I will always remember my experience at CHS because it has helped shape and create the person I am today, and I will be forever thankful.

When I had initially became a senior, I had feared that I wasn’t going to be ready for it, that it was going to set the stakes too high for me, and that I wouldn’t be able to catch up. Despite many people telling me that junior year was a lot harder than that of senior year, I had that irrational fear in the back of my head. It wasn’t long though until I ended up being proven wrong, as it turned out to be one of my favorite years whilst I had been in school. Of course, unlike other generations, we ended up having rather unfortunate circumstances related to covid-19. With the schools shut down and online schooling taking over, it has served to grant me a glimpse of the world beyond high school, and although I hate to admit it, I don’t really enjoy it. The lack of a guiding hand for the material presented, as well as assignments given, doesn’t work well with me. I’ve always depended on my teachers to set me on the right track, to stay focused on the task at hand, and to use my time well. And that’s not even mentioning how much I miss them. With it’s swift and sudden removal, I have little doubt now that college will be a challenging state of affairs. Then again, that was already known to me, and maybe I’ll end up proven wrong once more.

If I had to pick two words to sum up my senior year I’d have to go with uniquely unforgettable. While most people make lifelong memories during their high school senior year, no high school grads can relate to the experiences the class of 2020 will be talking about at our high school reunions. Reflecting back on the first half of my senior year, I’d say it was everything I had hoped for and more. From opportunities like being the leaders and role models on the sports field, to the freedom of open campus and events like the senior breakfast and senior-faculty volleyball game, the days we had at school were filled with special times. Though it is disappointing to think that this year we will likely be missing out on the traditional senior celebrations like prom and graduation, I think it is important to keep our situation in perspective and focus on the positive. For instance, I never thought I could be this well rested during the school year, have my bedroom so organized, or have time to finally finish reading the Harry Potter series I started back in my freshman year!

The 2017 Chatham Track & Field sign stays staked in my lawn. I take off my new Cougars sweatshirt, check my Garmin running watch, and set out for my daily jog. Sometimes I see teammates. We wave and shout encouragement from a distance. Other days, seemingly no one is outside. Running -- at Loantaka and Greystone, behind the high school and at Cougar, and through the streets of Chatham -- has taught me about community, friendship, and myself. I am so thankful for my family, friends, coaches, and teachers’ support.

Our team log and distance group Zoom can’t replace training and competing together, but these days it helps. While the Class of 2020 hasn’t had the expected end to high school, I’m happy to connect with friends and that much more grateful for all of the moments we’ve spent together. I’m excited to attend Villanova next year. On chilly days, I sometimes wear my new college sweatshirt, which elicits smiles and greetings from passersby. The conversation starter of a simple piece of spirit wear reminds me of the warmth and connection of community. I can’t wait to run Trot the Manor and Fishawack again in the future with my friends and neighbors.

If I could sum up my attitude coming into senior year, I’d definitely say ‘excited.’ From the first time I sat parked in the senior lot to every time I left for open campus, I’d get this feeling inside, thinking ‘this is everything I’ve been looking forward to.’ I’ve become close with new people reconnected with old friends. I’ve gotten to take classes like TV Production that I’ve wanted to take since freshman year. Just being able to live my life as a senior has made everything more fun and more exciting, like going to games and other school-wide events. It’s no doubt been an odd transition moving into quarantine in the middle of the year, but I know the administration is doing everything in their power to keep our school spirit alive as we live out the rest of the year. I wish that the circumstances could have been different, but there’s only so much we can do in these hard times. I’m thankful that I’ve still been able to participate in my classes even though the setup is almost completely different and I’m hopeful for how the rest of the year and this summer will play out.

I always looked forward to track practice. Whether we were singing a song to fight through the pain of our throbbing muscles or recounting funny stories, there was never a dull moment on our runs. Track is notorious for being a “gym exemption” sport, a sport that people join to get out of gym class. But, for me and some of my closest friends, track is so much more than that. There’s something special about running miles and miles with your best friends. Rather than competing against each other, we are pushing each other to exceed our own personal records. I’ll never forget the times we went to Magic Fountain after practice to reward ourselves for pushing through a hard workout or the times we prolonged warm-ups just so we could talk for a little bit longer. While I’m sad to say that I will never experience another season like this, I’m forever grateful for everything track has done for me, including introducing me to two of my best friends.

It’s been the perfect cliffhanger to a year full of ups and downs, moments of joy and moments of resignation and acceptance. The first days of senior year started out like the stories heard as freshmen: the swaggering down hallways, the late-to-class-because-of-open-campus apologies, the joy of taking classes that I loved. The reality hit a few weeks later: college essays that were written and rewritten, homework that piled up, the sleepless nights and worries that transcripts weren’t received by colleges in time. How apt is it for us to end on Friday the 13th. For a class that has gone through memorable experiences in the past—Hurricane Sandy, snowstorms in October, thunderstorms cancelling school trips—this is but one more thing that makes us unique. I turn 17 in a week and will forever treasure the small moments that have defined my life, if not the course of history. Friendships, laughing at lunch and cramming for tests. Moments of enlightenment from teachers and peers alike. All these memories, finding their niche in my mind, for me to return to when I reminisce. Here’s to the next four years, the next decade, the next century. We’ll always be the Class of 2020.

Homecoming Court Front row (L-R): Sofia Dorrego, Morgan Robinson, Mikayla Meyler, Lily Bauer, Cameron Bresnahan and Julia LeRoy. Back row (L-R): Jameson Shi, Tamer Farid, Ethan Walker, Luka Batljan, Adi Roy and Ryan Drum

I think everyone in Chatham knows that waiting in the Magic Fountain line is completely worth it for the ice cream. Waiting in line always went by super fast when I was with my two best friends, Alyssa and Moira. When it comes to the three of us, time goes by fast. Speaking of fast...the ice cream was worth it because of the cross country workout we demolished at practice earlier. Only a few short hours before waiting in line, the girl's XC team was tearing up the backfield at CHS. I will always cherish our times going to get ice cream. I know going to get ice cream may not sound like much, but it truly was a highlight of my senior year. I miss the perfect September weather. I miss laughing with my friends super loud in line. I miss the walks down Lowell Avenue back to the car. I miss September when I would walk around CHS, see all my friends and teachers, and know that soon my best friends and I would hang out, whether that was at Magic Fountain or practice. All that mattered was that we were together.

Nishika Agarwal

Jaclyn Ahrens

Samuel Alterman

Mullane Andreychuk

Jack Arnuk

Henry Ashton

Aidan Auer

Aidan Babovic

Jacob Badian

Matthew Barnes

Sean Barry

Luka Batljan

Julia Battiato

Lily Bauer

James Behrmann

Jeremiah Becerra

Andrew Bergman

Allyson Bertoldo

Amari Bhalla

Ethan Bitar

Krishna Bliss

Virginia Boles

Akshey Bose

Liliana Boudreau

Connor Breen

Cameron Bresnahan

Emily Brown

Aidan Buckley

Elizabeth Caracciolo

Joseph Carillo

Nolan Carney

Amanda Carroll

Gabriella Cataldo

Michael Chavez Bisch

Zachary Chin

Aidan Christie

Colton Christie

Dean Ciccarelli

Layla Clarke

Ethan Clymer

Hailey Coates

Caitlyn Colabraro

Patrick Conte

Scott Cook

Ryan Coughlin

Richard Coviello

Drew Coxson

Caroline Cree

Katherine Crowley

Michael Culleton

Charles Cuneo

Gabriella Cutlip

Anya D'Costa

Jackson D'Costa

Nicholas Da Silva

Ryan Dailey

Aidan Davenport

Aidan Decker

Samuel Dennerlein

Thomas DePinto

Jane DesMarais

Elisabeth Diplas

Capria DiVito

Shannon Donohoe

Sofia Dorrego

Emma Dowling

Myles Downey

Hailey Doyle

Ryan Drum

Luke Du Plessis

Ella DuRie

Nathaniel Eck

Griffin Eckert

Maxwell Eckles

Lisa Eriksson

William Ewald

Tamer Farid

Luke Fekete

Richard Ferrara

Kevin Ferreira

Izabella Fidler

Cillian Fisher

Matthew Fortuna

Reagan Fox

Charles Foy

Alexandra Franz

Emma Frohnapfel

Jorge Fuentes Contreras

Henry Gallagher

Amanda Gallop

Steven Garcia

Annesha Ghosh

Alec Gironda

Matthew Goldstein

Amy Grant

Ronan Green

Kelly Greiner

Matthew Grosso

Marwa Guemmi

Elvin Gunadasa

Vani Gupta

Luke Hale

Aidan Hallerman

Peter Han

Ethan Hargrove

Hailey Harkins

Madeline Hartnett

Ella Healy

Margot Hearne

Charles Higgins

Natalie Higgins

William High

Daniel Hoffman

Clare Hofheinz

Grace Hofheinz

Liam Holland

Kyle Holmes

Jonathan Hopkins

Moira Horan

Zoe Horowitz

Peter Hughes

Margaret Hyland

Erica Iizuka

Monica Iizuka

Zoe Iorizzo

Naila Ismail

Eric Ivers

Meghan Johnston

Charlotte Jones

Ian Kagan

Nicholas Kaisand

Penelope Kass

Daniel Kehoe

Quinn Kelly

Ahmer Khan

Caroline Kiernan

Kyle Koehler

Donovan Kolker

Rachel Koury

Taylor Kraus

Kyle Kressler

Benjamin Krill

Ryan Krill

Marlon Kripzak

Vedant Kudalkar

Sahana Kumar

Emily Lamb

Grace Lambrianakos

James Lapus

Ethan Leininger

Nicholas Leon Gonzalez

Sean Leonard

Julia LeRoy

Edward Leskauskas

Euijin Lim

Shenjia Liu

Nicholas Lok

Carson Lubrano

Tamer Luzi

Livia Macchia

Lara Machado Bautista

Laura Macri

Catherine Madden

Christine Madden

Jacob Mahon

John Mahoney

Stavros Makris

Meera Malhotra

James Maltby

Ryan Mancino

Albane Marion

Evangeline Mason

Tessa Mason

Susan McAloon

Ryan McArthur

Owen McCaffrey

Jillian McCarthy

Grace McCombs

Chloe McGlynn

Heather McGuire

Jennifer McNiff

Marley McSweeney

Haley McVeigh

Milo Medvin

Mikayla Meyler

Cate Middleton

Emily Middleton

Christopher Mojares

Samuel Mulford

Conor Mulligan

Eesha Nagpal

Matthew Nall

William Nash

Grace Nickerson

Matthew Nonnenmacher

Alexandra Norce

Tristan O'Brien

McKenna O'Connor

Hailey O'Donnell

Elizabeth O'Neill

William O'Neill

Jennifer Olnowich

Anais Oquendo

Rachel Origenes

Lucianne Ortega Reyes

Valeria Osorio Giraldo

Andrew Ott

Katherine Ott

Melina Panagakos

Mia Paone

Nicholas Papa

Nicole Papadogiannis

Nishant Parikh

Gabriel Park

Anna Paskalides

Matthew Patterson

Maria Pereira Araujo

Charlotte Perret

Haley Petitt

Andrew Petruska

Sophia Piparo

Elizabeth Poillucci

Olivia Polemeni

Jeremy Pollard

Joseph Polverino

Jonathan Powers

Benjamin Prill

Philip Puccio

Veronica Quidore

Julia Raskin

Kathleen Redmond

Aliza Reshamwalla

Amber Reshamwalla

Rachel Rheinhardt

Olivia Richardson Bozzo

Samuel Richardson Bozzo

Jessica Rindos

Morgan Robinson

Logan Robson

Thomas Rondepierre

Naomi Ross

Aditya Roy

Ivan Rozhkov

Dylan Salinger

Yekta Samani

Kaitlyn Sanchez

Karoline Savarese

Anthony Scerbo

Max Schaefer

Peter Schelling

Kevin Scott

Kimia Sharif

John Shehadi

Jameson Shi

Aidan Shimchak

Matthew Sidorovich

Rubin Simmons

Aidan Sims

Amelia Sleeman

Madison Smith

Alexis Smizaski

Kaley Snarr

Calli Snyder

Matthew Snyder

Matthew Sofo

Shreya Srikanth

Andrew Stadinski

Evi Stiner

Ryan Storm

Connor Strutt

Nicholas Suter

Katherine Swift

Rachel Tam

Ariana Tarhanidis

Miriam Thompson

John Tolkin

Victoria Toro

Andrew Tran

Connor Tully

Alyssa Ulla

Grace Van Sciver

Anna Van Wie

Jessica Varca

Ryan Varca

Helen Varvatsoulis

David Venezia

Grace Venezia

Brian Villagran

Michael Vintzel

Samuel Viola

Leonard Von Heill

Ethan Walker

Ella Walmsley

Lucy Walrond

Aidan Walsh

Victoria Walters

Katherine Wang

Leo Wang

Meghan Warner

Morgan Wasserman

Kaitlyn Weaving

Aidan West

Bridget White

Katherine White

Daniel Widmer Witthuser

Camille Winn

Christopher Winn

Katherine Witte

Jane Workman

Ryan Yeakel

Petra Zadroga

Zihan Zhang

Amy Zheng

We would like to thank Salerno Duane Inc. in Summit for bringing you this month’s cover story.