Open letter to you who are finishing high school in June 2021

To celebrate all high school graduates and mark this important moment in their lives, News from here proposed to one of them, David Tremblay, to compose an open letter to all these young people from here. The opportunity for our editorial staff to give them the floor and pay tribute to the resilience that these young people (and their families!) Have shown since the start of the pandemic.

Letter to us, 2020-2021 graduates

September 2020: back to school. No one knew what to expect, neither you nor me.

Online courses? In class ? With mask? Without a mask? All you knew was this was going to be a special year.

And then, restrictions after restrictions, you’ve lost everything: sports, the arts and school trips.

The only thing that you could rub shoulders with besides your bubble-class? The absence. Lack of motivation, lack of interactions, absence of everything you’ve known and loved. Finally, everything we liked. Because you and I may not know each other, but I’ve never looked like you so much.

I did theater, improvisation, painting. I lived for art at my school. In just one day, I was deprived of everything that moved me. Despite all of this, I realized that there were some great things to be learned from it. There always is.

The pandemic has not been easy for anyone. While we had to live the happiest moments of our lives, we were separated from each other. With a heavier workload and work-study courses, staying the course was particularly difficult. Never so close to our bed, never slept so little.

But, this year, we have all the same redoubled our efforts. We have heard how many times our year is going to be difficult. However, we have overcome all these pitfalls.

Even more than ever, social networks have allowed us to come together. And although our meetings were online, our friendships were far from virtual. On the contrary, we are all the more united.

15 months

In total, we were put on hiatus for 15 months. 15 months of waiting and hoping for a ball where we could finally be gathered.

But thanks to this pandemic, we have discovered our solidarity, a strength that even a hundred balls could not have developed.

Do you remember the boys in skirts mobilized against the sexism of dress codes? All over Quebec, we have come together to denounce this situation. No matter our school or region, we have proven that we, the youth, want change. We are the change.

The end ? A beginning !

In a few days, we will take a big step in life: the end of our secondary school.

We are going to become adults. We will continue to advance the causes that matter to us. And maybe it will be difficult, but I don’t care. We have overcome many hardships, while remaining united despite everything.

This force will stay with us for years to come. And in the future, we will remember the 2020-2021 cohort, a bearer of hope, resilience and solidarity.

I could have addressed this text to the Prime Minister, but I decided to write to you, to all of us, the graduates. This letter is for you, because all that you have accomplished during this exceptional year deserves to be recognized.

So, to all of you who are finishing high school, let me take my mortar.