Dear Future Rock Island Students, 

My name is Ellie Maranda. I’m currently a senior at Rocky, writing this letter to you as an assignment for the journalism class (which I highly recommend you join!) It’s 2020 and we’re currently in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. I’m sure you’ve heard of this and the effects it had on the world as a whole, but I’d like to share with you a more personal and local experience. In March of this year, we all walked out the doors of Rock Island High School on the last day before spring break having no idea that those of us who were seniors would never go back. Since then, numerous events that most of us have anticipated for years have been cancelled, or rescheduled. Our spring musical was Cinderella and I was supposed to be playing my flute in the Pit for the second year, but it was cancelled. Our NHS Induction Ceremony was cancelled. All of the spring concerts, including my last in the Rocky band program that I loved more than anything, were cancelled. Prom, for which I had bought a beautiful purple dress that I adored, was cancelled. Graduation, the final event to showcase all of the hard work my class has put in for twelve years, was rescheduled for August 2020.

Not only are we missing the big, traditional high school experiences, we’re also missing the little things. We won’t be able to have our teachers and friends sign our yearbooks. We won’t be able to spend one last day together as students, some of us who’ve gone to school together since kindergarten. We won’t get to walk down the hallways we’ve grown to know for four years before leaving out of the red doors for the last time on a warm, sunny day in late May. We’ll never get to spend another day in the school where we’ve all grown into adults, made our best friends, crafted amazing memories, and gained knowledge we will carry with us for the rest of our lives. It’s been difficult for every high school student, but especially for us seniors. I hope you and your class cherish all of these experiences and enjoy them as much as we would have. (And I hope Rocky has fixed those leaky ceilings!)