For juniors at PPCHS, step up day is a yearly tradition where they get to celebrate the transition of becoming seniors. However for this year’s juniors, class of ‘21, they weren’t able to participate in the tradition due to COVID-19. 

  For Kolbie Guerrero, a junior at Pines Charter, she has been waiting for step up day since freshman year, and not being able to have that day is upsetting. She states, “That’s our big day. We take those spots as seniors and it’s one of the best days of junior year.” During step up day juniors step up and become seniors, and wear their senior crowns that they made. It’s a day where the juniors celebrate their accomplishments during high school and transition into becoming a senior. Kolbie also states, “Corona has complicated things for everyone and the list just keeps piling on what events and things are being affected.” Another junior, Sophia Reynoso, expresses her disappointment saying, “It was a tradition I’d seen since middle school and I was always really excited to decorate a crown. It’s kind of a reminder of where all our hard work has gotten us and I hope the class of ‘22 gets to have that opportunity.” For juniors like Kolbie and Sophia, step up day was important to them and was a day they’ve been waiting to have since the beginning of freshman year. 

   Having step up day taken away from juniors due to COVID-19 is something that is saddening for many. Putting in all your hard work to get to have a step up day is special, and to have it be canceled is greatly disappointing for many of those students.