Guest Column: The pandemic provided many challenges for this year’s Grade 6 grads

By CAMERON MIHALIK

My name is Cameron Mihalik and I am a Grade 6 student graduating from Adam Beck Public School.

I know that graduating Grade 6 might not seem like a big deal compared to winning a Grammy or gold medal at the Olympics, but as the first born in my family to graduate from Adam Beck, I am winning at life!

As my wise dad has always taught me, “If you are not first, you are last.”

The beginning days at school were fun. Maybe even a bit stressful because we were making new friends and learning how to spell our names.

Now, I have made many close friends from Kindergarten and most of the time, I can even spell my last name.

In retrospect, the stress of making new friends and hoping your teacher likes you was small and normal in comparison to what we had to face ahead of us.

It all started in March 2020. What we knew and predicted about school was completely different.

We no longer saw each other’s faces in person, we started using a keyboard and mouse to complete our assignments, and there was no recess. We left wondering if we would ever return back to school.

But we did make it back to school, and then home again, and back to school, and home again. And then there was a snow storm.

And then, we finally went back to school to see our friends and teachers all behind masks.

In the past before COVID-19, graduating Grade 6 was about celebrating learning how to read and write, do long division and even how to play an instrument.

However, this graduating year, our celebration is much more important than learning academics. It is about the challenges and struggles we had to overcome together in these past few years.

At times, the COVID days were dark and lonely, but like a tree in winter, it may look like there is nothing happening, but as soon as winter is over, the tree still blooms it’s leaves.

Parents, thank you, for using your computer genius skills to figure out how to log into our TDSB (Toronto District School Board) accounts, and for helping us with our Grade 4 math homework, even though your math skills may have ended at Grade 3.

Teachers, we appreciate all the time, creativity, and efforts spent teaching online and in the classroom during a difficult time.

Office staff and caretakers, thank you for keeping us safe and organised all these years.

I would also like to thank all the principals and vice principals for being highest authorities of enforcing rules. Although at our school, our principals are so nice, it’s a pleasure being sent to the principal’s office.

During my time at school, I have learned that parents can be teachers and teachers can be parents.

Thank you all for being the sun and light to help us make it through the long dark winter and helping us grow.

Grade 7, here we come. I just hope you are ready for us.

---