Lori Leavitt, right, with daughter Jenessa Mallory at their Creswell home. Both are dealing with the loss of school activities during the pandemic. Photo by David Leavitt
I should be watching my daughter play her last year of softball. We should be shopping for a prom dress and getting our nails done. We should be sending out invitations for graduation, and planning a party.
Instead we are home, looking at an uncertain future, trying to stay upbeat when we don’t know when, or if, life will ever be normal again. I keep thinking of last year’s snowstorm. We went without power for several days and we couldn’t even leave our property due to trees that had fallen across our driveway. It was an intensely challenging time. It lasted only days, but it is a strangely familiar feeling now.
We are not leaving home, we are not going to school, or work, or hanging with friends. We are cooking and baking new things together. We are playing games. We are having dinner together each night and talking about new things each day. I know we will look back and marvel at the things we did together, and how it shaped our lives in new ways, but I am extremely sad for all our seniors and the many milestones they are missing.
– Lori Leavitt, Mom
Words can’t express how hard this has been for me and the senior class. Personally, I am extremely sad and angry about the whole situation.
I feel like no body really understands because they all got their graduations, their proms, their yearbooks, and were able to say goodbye to this chapter of their life and I don’t get that. It’s like I’ve been robbed of everything that’s supposed to make high school worth it and now I’m so upset that I’m not sure if I want to go back or continue school online. I’m just so confused and there’s so many questions that are not being answered.
– Jenessa Mallory, Student
Jenessa Mallory is student body president; her mom, Lori, is president of the Creswell boosters club.
