Luther students nervous, excited for graduation

It’s the time of year when high school students wrap up one chapter of their lives and begin another.

Graduation season is here, leaving Luther College High School graduate Annika Drummond with mixed emotions.

“I’m very excited because it’s just something new, but it’s also kind of bittersweet because I’m moving away, so it’s a very new start (which is a little) scary and nerve-wracking, but also exciting,” Drummond said.

She said she’s planning to pursue a degree in science at the University of Victoria.

Fellow student Caitlyn Le agreed that graduating is a bit bittersweet. Le said she’s planning on going to McGill University in Montreal to study kinesiology.

“We live in quite a small city, and I think that going to bigger cities and also living in different provinces is something that’s really scary,” Le said. “Four years of knowing what Luther is and then having to change and adapt is also pretty nerve-wracking.”

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the two had a rather unusual high school experience compared to what most people in the city would have dealt with. But, Drummond said, the students were still able to make the best of it and create meaningful bonds and experiences along the way.

“It was very weird,” Drummond said.

“It was our Grade 9 year that we had our first quarantine, so we didn’t even get like a full first year, but we’re incredibly lucky because Luther kept up with our studies very well, even in the years after that when we weren’t fully online and it was just kind of going back and forth — we had a lot of opportunities to still stay intact with our (fellow) students and our studies.”

Drummond said returning to in-person learning helped the students appreciate the school community more.

“That’s one of the things that Luther really promotes the most, and you don’t really understand that until it’s taken away from you, so that was cool to see,” Drummond said.

Le lamented being deprived of the full Luther experience during Grade 9, as well as having several ups and downs throughout the pandemic, but she said she’s grateful things ended on a high note.

“It was really difficult, but I’m just really glad that our Grade 12 year was something that we could really find memorable,” Le said.