As graduation creeps closer and closer, many students are rushing to get their final strings tied. The class of 2024 started high school during a pandemic and now they’re finishing off some of the most important years of their lives. It’s no secret that COVID affected everyone, but is the class of 2024 still stuck in the aftermath of the chaos?

Starting high school is a new beginning for several students across the world. It’s a chance to refresh your social circles and try again. With COVID following the class of 2024 into high school, their socialization options were heavily limited. From the start, they were separated from important experiences. The turmoil caused many students great trauma, and to this day most of them are still suffering from the aftermath of such isolation.

“Even now, I still have a lot of those unhealthy habits of procrastinating and not putting in effort,” an anonymous East senior said,“When I should have been in school learning and talking with friends, I wasn’t paying attention because being online put me into the mentality that I didn’t have to. I am still unlearning those behaviors years later.”

According to the National Institute of Health, the wake of COVID alone caused a 4.1% increase in anxiety among adolescents. The CDC, APA, and many other institutes alike agree that rising anxiety in today’s students is something that society needs to be more aware of. Many are familiar with senioritis, but this goes beyond that. The mental repercussions caused by COVID aren’t just responsible for students feeling burnt out; they also feel disconnected and scared.

The class of 2024 was barely prepared to enter high school. Now four years of their lives have passed by in a blur and they need to be prepared to enter into a whole new world.

In a Teen Vogue article written on the effects of COVID, Skyli Alvarez shared her thoughts. “For such students, having to readjust their understandings of time and closure amid great unrest has been no easy task,” Alvarez said. “Rather, redefining what it means to come of age has been an ongoing process. The era of virtual classes may (mostly) be over, but the effects of the pandemic continue reverberating through the halls of these final months of high school.”

Fast forward four years, and students are still trying to pick up the broken pieces. For high school students who continue to struggle, there are many resources out there that are ready to help.