Port Charlotte HS seniors cherish yearbooks with positive look back

Port Charlotte High School students now have their yearbooks Monday. We got a look at students getting the chance to pick up something that will give them memories for the rest of their lives.

PCHS students didn’t expect their school year to end with the coronavirus pandemic. But they are grateful they have the opportunity to look back at the entire year and not only recall the parts consumed by COVID-19.

It’s the first time PCHS senior Alexis Trapp gets to take a look at her last year of high school, at the parts that were going as planned — before thoughts of quarantine and online school.

“It’s really nice to see everyone in there, including me in my little graduating outfit,” Trapp said.

This year’s theme was “2020 vision.” And, although the Class of 2020 didn’t see this coming, the memories are crystal clear. And, now, they’re bound together.

“Just to see all of what we’ve done for homecoming and football games, just to like relive it, and just to see all of our friends, all of us together, it’s so fun,” PCHS senior Cassidy Povazan said.

And the yearbooks came a few weeks early.

“They just want to feel like we haven’t forgotten about them,” said English teacher Theresa Chandler, who is the PCHS yearbook sponsor. “They are still Pirates. They are still graduating from here.”

Students rolled into school Monday for the first time in more than a month to get their memories through their car window. They pretended the receipts they autographed held the same weight as signing their friends’ yearbooks.

While many were sad it had to be done this way, students were happy to have some of the normalcy they expected this school year.

“My yearbook was the last thing I was thinking about,” Trapp said. “But it’s now became one of the most important things to me, now that I do have it. It’s a memory holder.”

For freshmen, sophomores and juniors, they hope the next school year is normal. But, for the seniors whose last year ended with a serious twist, they tell us, even if they had the chance to go back and do it all over again, they wouldn’t change a thing.

Port Charlotte High School will hand out yearbooks again Tuesday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to noon.