The Senior COVID Experience: Hope Among the Disappointment

By Michael Lurie ‘21

    On a cool, late September evening, the senior class of 2021 gathered for the first time in six months. Even as each member of the grade took turns presenting their senior artifacts, something was missing even beyond those students who could not attend Havdalah in Pajamas for safety reasons.
    “There’s more stress in the air, more uncertainty,” explained Matt Saperstein. “We missed out on typical senior traditions like the senior Shabbaton in its typical fashion.”

A similar sentiment is felt by many members of the class because of the inability to gather in a group as any previous senior class could. The highlights of the GOA senior experience are some of the freedoms and opportunities given to students, but much of that has become impossible in the times of COVID-19.
    “It feels like my senior year was taken away from me,” DJ Mevorah said. “I deserved this senior year after a hard three years of high school.”
    The class of 2021 has almost unanimously expressed their disappointment about losing the senior Shabbaton, open campus privileges, school leadership opportunities and final sports and arts seasons, leaving holes in expectations that are now never able to be filled. Despite this, some are still able to find the silver linings in a situation filled with disappointment.
    “Senior year has still been fun,” said Saperstein. “You find the ways to make it good.”
    Sam Rigante, who has elected to remain learning remotely for the year, even finds the positives in her position.
    “I’m happy that I’m staying home in the aspect that I feel safe,” Rigante said. “Socially it’s fine. I’ve felt pretty connected to my class.”
    Maintaining some semblance of connection to each other has been a focal point for many seniors, seeing the opportunity to be together as a true privilege at a time when so many lack that ability.
    “I’m happy with the ways school has worked to give us an in-person senior experience which many kids will not get to experience in their last year of high school,” Saperstein said. “I’ve been very appreciative to learn in school and see my friends.”
    Events like Havdalah in Pajamas as a means of bringing the grade together at a time when everyone feels so far apart are only the beginning of what is necessary to salvage the lost experiences of senior year. The culmination of the twelfth grade, as well as the entire GOA experience, is and will always be Neshama.
    “A lot of seniors would say that if Neshama doesn’t happen, they’d be missing out on the single most important event of their senior year at GOA,” Saperstein explained.
    As one of the most celebrated and anticipated school events, the semester-long journey throughout Israel is a way in which lessons at school can be applied to real life in many different ways. More than that, it can bring the class together as no other experience could.
    “I’d like Neshama to happen. I think it would be a nice way to end the year,” Ben Haase said. “Hopefully everyone will have gotten into college and we can relax and be in our bubble, seeing our friends much more.”
But with the uncertainty surrounding any activity over the past ten months, Neshama remains a question mark in the seniors’ futures. COVID-19 numbers have surged in the United States over the winter and vaccine rollout has fallen short of every intended goal.
Despite Israel’s borders being closed to foreigners at the time, hope is found in the incredibly successful vaccine program throughout the country. With Israel having already vaccinated over 25 percent of its population, Rabbi Meirav Kallush and Rabbi Rob Kahn, along with the school administration, are following through with Neshama plans as of now.
“Neshama is set to leave on time… Feb. 14 at 8 p.m.,” Kallush assured. “The program will just change according to COVID regulations.”
As she explained, the school is geared towards a timely departure, with the Israeli government having granted GOA permission to enter the country already. At this point, Israel has a right to rescind its permission should the COVID situation in either country become more dire, but Kallush remains optimistic that this is an unlikely scenario. In all likelihood, the seniors will depart at the end of their first semester.
“You’ve been working hard. Every grade works hard until senior year,” Kallush said. “I think for your grade it’s been a rough junior and senior year. Neshama is an opportunity to feel that it’s different; feel that life, even though it changed, you still have the opportunity to do traditions.”
With Neshama being the potential saving grace of the class of 2021’s final year at school, seniors anxiously await confirmation that the long-needed break from the challenges of social-distanced school indeed comes to fruition.
“I’m going to appreciate Neshama more now because of the year that we’ve had,” Mevorah said.
That cool night in late September certainly brought seniors a sense of togetherness that was lacking since the world spun out of control, but nothing compares to the healing power that Neshama can provide–an adventure of a lifetime, for sure, but more importantly, the long-forgotten feeling of anticipation being satisfied.