From a lockdown in 2020 to the first win against rival school New Braunfels in a while, the Class of 2023 has seen it all. Our first spring break was filled with talks about a little virus going around called Covid-19 and everyone thought we were going to get a 2-week long spring break; instead, we got a 6-month-long break from school. We all came back in the fall of 2020 wearing masks and forgetting what each other really looked like. In the exciting year of being able to skip school and do online attendance, we were hit with a snowstorm in mid-February, making the weird year even weirder than we thought it could get.

Finally, we got to our junior year, our first full year of a normal high school experience full of homecoming, football games, our junior prom, and very few masks in sight. Now, as we close our senior year in a chapter of this class’s life, I’m sure many people won’t forget, for better or worse. To remember our anything-but-normal high school experience, I interviewed three fellow seniors to find out what exactly they thought of their time here at Canyon.

Hunter Geter is a Varsity football and lacrosse player. He’s played football every year in high school and recently added lacrosse to his resume.

“I’d say my senior year lived up pretty well to my expectations,” Geter explained, “I expected to do a little bit of work, have fun, and enjoy the sports I play.” Geter was asked to look a little into the past when asked about his highlight stating, “Probably going to have to be my freshman Spanish class. I had all my friends in there, and we started with Mrs. Hernandez, then ended with Mr. Woods.”

Dominic “Dom” Early is a super smart kid, the kind of guy that’s always at the top of the Kahoot leaderboard, the kid who’s always turning in his test first, the kind of kid you want to have as a partner in a project so you know you’re going to get a good grade. Dom competes in all forms of UIL competition, Calculator, Math, and Science, as well as participating in HOSA his junior year.

“So excited,” Dom said when asked how he feels about finishing high school. “I’m looking forward to college next year, moving on to UT, and moving on to bigger and better things.” When asked about the highlight of his time here, Dom explained a little about his UIL experience. “I really liked UIL, being able to go to all the competitions, meeting new people, seeing old people and just hanging out with all of my homies, going to bigger competitions like districts.”

Dom, just like all humans, obviously has regrets about high school. “I would’ve taken a couple of easier classes, worked a little harder,” Dom explained, “had a bit more fun, gone to more games and sporting events, and really got the whole high school experience.”

From a disease to snow days in Texas, to a last and 100 percent normal year, the class of 2023 has been able to adapt and overcome just about anything, and as dumb as we may have seemed, we’re still all smarter than the class of 2026.