Senior Sunrise, which occurred on August 23, 2019, was the symbolic opening to the last year of high school for Santiago’s class of 2020. At 5:45 that morning, seniors came to school, many after a detour at Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks to fuel them through their unusually early arising. Breakfast was provided, a choice of either Chick-Fil-A or items from the selection of muffins, pastries, and granola bars.

The seniors settled on blankets with their friends or in the quad to hang out, take pictures, and, in theory, feel a sense of community as they watched the sunrise on their last year of high school and speculate about all the memories in store for them as they made new friends, came face-to-face with the college application process, and discovered themselves through the course of this influential year. However, with the fog and clouds resulting in an anticlimactic overcast, there was, unfortunately, no bright or pivotal moment of sunrise, which dismayed some students, who deemed the event a disappointment, or a waste of the two hours of sleep they sacrificed to arrive early.

Even so, many students enjoyed what else the event had to offer. This included filling up expanses of strings with notes that seniors wrote to themselves and would be handed back on Senior Sunset in May. Many took to capturing the moments with friends, taking pictures in front of the painted sign that was exponentially more magnificent than any visible real-life phenomenon of the morning. Even with the gray skies, sunshine manifested in the hearts of the laughing class of 2020, beginning their last year of high school with open arms.