By Felicity Zhang — CCHS Correspondent
Concord-Carlisle High School’s Class of 2024 had a particularly rocky start to their high school experience, with the Covid pandemic hitting their freshman year.
But having made it through both the ordinary and the unexpected moments, some students tell The Concord Bridge they credit the environment of CCHS for their optimism going forward.
In some cases, they’re also still coming to terms with reaching the end of their high school days.
“I honestly can’t believe that just seven years ago, I graduated elementary school and was dreaming about these days, and just four years ago, I walked through these halls for the first time,” says Hannah Daniel.
Faith Clark agrees that “it flew by, to say the least… While there were many ups and downs, looking back at it, I’m thankful for the people I’ve met and experiences I’ve had along the way.”
The seniors attest that many of these bonds and memories arose from both the diversity of the broader CCHS community and the intimacy of the groups within it.
Mia Snorek-Yates calls “the environment and support system” at CCHS “a remarkable one.” And Harry Crowley says that while he was “uninvolved and isolated” upon first coming to the high school, “I’ve found countless friends, communities, and like-minded people who I’ll carry with me into the future.”
Noah Zall says he, too, found a sense of family in his activities and altogether “made strong bonds with my peers, creating friendships, friendly rivalries, and other relationships to either last or remember for a lifetime.”
Seniors were particularly careful to cherish their last moments together.
Crowley says the sense of community is “greater [than] ever before” in the final months of high school “The parents and the school administration do a great job putting on events for all 325 of us,” he adds.
Great power and great responsibility
Senior year offered a glimpse into adulthood — a glimpse students may have dreaded previously but say they were fascinated to finally experience.
For Maya Fingerle, “the flexibility and personal responsibility” are the best parts of being a senior — including, for example, being able to drive to and from school and park in the senior lot.
And “teachers, and everyone else too, have a lot of trust in you… There’s a lot more opportunity to build your own path,” Daniel adds.
Some took the freedom of senior year a little more literally: Zall says his favorite senior year memory is of “camping out overnight with two of my closest friends on the Canadian border to watch the eclipse, then spending 17 hours over two days to drive back home because the traffic was so horrendous.”
Bright futures
With the accumulated skills, memories, and bits of wisdom of the past four years under their belts, seniors are striving toward ambitious dreams, from researching and engineering climate change-related technology to pursuing professional careers in the performing arts. Alongside their professional plans, however, the seniors are equally eager to explore the uncertainties that remain.
Daniel says that while she’s excited to head to Virginia for college and “get a taste of a different region in the U.S.” after having lived in New England her whole life, she still “really [has] no idea” where she wants to live in the future.
Asked to name his dream job, Crowley exclaims, “I have absolutely no idea!”
Still, he hopes to “spend some part of my career in the public sector… working towards a mission that is bigger than myself.
“I can honestly say that my time at CCHS has changed who I am as a person and framed my outlook on the future,” he says.
