Receiving the email to RSVP to the senior sunrise, I felt relieved to have one event be normal this year. However, as the weeks passed and the event came near, more rules were put into place and it felt less and less like a normal event. We were no longer having breakfast, to ensure that masks stayed on and reduce the risk of Covid spreading, and we were not allowed to leave our cars to ensure the safety of everyone. 

The night before the event, I set my alarm for 5:30 a.m. (which is the earliest I had gotten up in a year). I was so excited to see my friends that I could not fall asleep, but somehow still managed to wake up at 4:50 in the morning and ran fully on adrenaline. 

As I drove to school, I started to see a glimpse of the sunrise. I arrived at school at 6:10 and parked next to a car full of my friends. I started to see everyone I know arrive. I waved from a distance, and I wished more than ever that I could run up to people and hug them.  “I think that it was really nice that we finally got to do our first real in person event and even though the sunrise wasn’t the best it was nice to see lots of seniors that we hadn’t seen since last year,” senior Jenna Robinson said.

All the cars faced Wootton Parkway, and if you looked around it almost seemed as if it was a normal school day. The parking lot was more full than I had seen in a long time. 6:15 hit and everyone was attempting to look through the trees and see the sunrise, only to realize that the clouds were fully blocking the view. A few streaks of hot pink peeked through the clouds. Little did I know that was the most I was going to be able to see. 

Although the sunrise was not what people anticipated, students still were able to see their friends from a distance and hang out with people after. I was able to meet up with my friends and go to Fallsgrove after to grab some coffee. Never have I seen the Fallsgrove parking lot so empty and easy to drive through.

My friends and I sat on the benches outside Starbucks and were having a good time catching up with one another. I was shocked by how many people get smoothies from Smoothie King at seven in the morning. I was baffled by the fact that by the time I got home it was only 9:30 in the morning; I would not even be up by that time normally. 

The sunrise might not have been what the seniors anticipated, but the PTA tried hard to have a normal event that followed the school and Covid guidelines to keep everyone safe.“It was fun to finally get to do something together as a class even if we had to stay in our cars,” senior Jillian Pohoryles said.