Three Middle Tennessee high school graduates reflect on the past, present, and future

For Tennessee’s class of 2022, a majority of their high school experience has been overshadowed by a global health crisis, social unrest, virtual learning and, most recently, mass shootings. But through it all, students say they’ve learned to be patient with themselves, to not be afraid to ask for help and that the bad days don’t last forever.

Here are three seniors’ reflections on the past, present and future, which have been lightly edited for clarity and length:

Donisha Wilson just graduated from Glencliff High School. She is a Tennessee Promise scholar and will be attending Nashville State Community College. Wilson hopes to become a nurse and a hair salon owner.

After COVID hit, it was really hard. I really wasn’t learning through virtual class. My grades were slipping, my attendance was bad, and I couldn’t understand a word. My teachers would try to help me over the phone; it was still really hard.

I didn’t think I was going to graduate. But once they let us back in school, I just got to work. I made sure to have a positive attitude so I can bring up my grades and earn any credits I needed. This year, I graduated with all As.

Something I learned from all of this is that the bad days don’t last forever. This was the first official full year coming back from COVID, and all the seniors tried to make it as best as we could. We didn’t get our cap and gown pictures. We didn’t have any type of pep rallies. We didn’t get our senior pictures in our yearbooks.

Truth is, I don’t really expect much from my school. It sometimes feels like my school is always last in everything, for everything. But us seniors put everyone in a group chat at the first week of school, and we went from there. Whatever we wanted to plan, we just texted in the group chat.

I have hope in my generation. I believe we’re going to make a difference. I’ve seen everybody in my class grow so much from freshmen year. We used to have disagreements and some of us didn’t prioritize school. But senior year, we put each other first and we all put the work in to get it done and we graduated.

Frank Yang recently graduated from Hume-Fogg High School, where he was part of Asians United and Mu Alpha Feta, a math tutoring club. He plans to study accounting and finance at Indiana University Kelley School of Business. He hopes to become an auditor when he’s older.

What have I learned about myself this past year? I learned that it’s not always about chasing meaningless titles and scores. Sometimes you have to stop and wonder, “Why am I chasing this goal?” Once I realized my reason, I felt extremely free.

What am I talking about? Well, all my life, my parents have been telling me, “Hey, you have to get good grades.” And I thought OK, that’s pretty straightforward but it’s also a little vague. The more I thought about it, I realize they wanted me to get good grades because they want me to live a good life. And when I realized that, I thought, “Oh, I love you mom, I love you dad, you know?”

Our country needs to change. I love the United States, which is why I believe we should push for a better future. But I don’t know who or how it’s going to be changed.

This might make me sound bad, but I’m desensitized. I don’t feel anything when I hear the news. In my mind, I think, another shooting. I hate it when I don’t feel anything because people died, children died. Part of the reason I think I feel this way is even if I feel something, it’s not going to make a difference.

I know things will get better eventually, but I don’t know if it’ll be this generation that makes it happen. When it comes to violence and injustice, I feel like the can is always being kicked down the road to the next generation and the next. It almost becomes a game about how far you can kick it down the road before you have to actually do something about it.

Tyler Murray is the recent valedictorian at Antioch High School. She will be studying political science with a focus in international relations at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Murray hopes to become a lawyer and a U.S. diplomat.

Going into my senior year, I was scared of what to expect. We were coming back from being online all of my junior year. I got so used to being in my room and doing my schoolwork online, I had to re-learn how to talk to people and how to do my work in class again.

When I heard about the school shootings, my anxiety got really bad. I was very upset over it because I hadn’t heard about a school shooting in so long. I think the last one that impacted me was the Parkland shooting. I was in eighth grade at the time, and we started practicing school shooter drills that year.

Since I graduated, it kind of put more relief on me, which I feel bad about. I was very upset but also relieved that I’m no longer in a public school setting where I could be a victim of that.

I think a lot of this is just preventable. They shouldn’t have had access to those guns in the first place. I used to be optimistic and thought stuff would change, but nothing has really changed. Sometimes, I feel hopeless about the future of America because I feel like we’re not really going anywhere and we just end up going in circles.

But my generation brings me a lot of hope because I know a lot of people my age who really want stuff to change and are working towards that. I have hope that we keep that energy until we’re older. We can make the world a better place.