With graduation season in full swing, the class of 2024 is reflecting on a highly

unusual four years of school. Their freshman experience was marked by pandemic lockdowns,

but that was just the first in the chain of momentous global events.

We spoke to some members of this class about how they're looking back and forward.

My name is Rees of Interior, and I am a senior in high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

My name is Aiden Booker. I'm a graduating senior from Twinsburg, Ohio.

I'm Nicolet Gabriel and I just graduated from Buffalo Performing Arts and I live in Buffalo, New York.

My name is Matthew Spiker. I'm 22 years old and I just graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in

our liberal engineering. My name is Anola Getta. I'm a

graduating senior at the University of California Davis. Our classes

definitely experience a lot of turbulence and uncertainty.

I think everyone that lived during this period shares a sort of unique bond that's just never been seen before.

I think it's really crazy to see everything that has happened.

It's just like, am I living a dream?

Like this can't be real. I think the past four years can basically be described

as living out a history book, right? COVID pandemic protests the Russia, Ukraine war,

or what's happening in the Middle East, right?

Is basically living out everything that you would see in a history book right it

it's unsettling to me I think about that contrast a lot of like the March.

It's only going to be two weeks and I'm going to come back

to the December like gloom of like when is this going to end.

You can't just go back to normal after that. Like there was no like back to normality or back to like a before time.

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