BY KAINE ENE

Some are lucky enough to have good family or pets during quarantine to keep them company; others find companionship from the outside.  It takes one thing or another to realize that companionship is one of the most important things to cherish. 

For some, it’s finally senior year, and “Senioritis” bears its fangs once again. What is that, though?

 “I’d say losing motivation to come to school everyday and just do basic classwork,” says senior Rachel Malelega. Being almost done with high school makes it hard for students to motivate themselves through the final sprint, and Malelega agrees. Whatever the enemy is for one student or another this year, a good friend or companion can help you through it. Motivate you. For Malelega, it’s a lot of people, but also the tennis team where she finds plenty of friends willing to listen. “There’s a girl named Kaylee that has been very supportive,” she says.  “I’ve been going through a lot of, like, mental health things, and she’s always there for me and she will listen. And she’ll understand. I feel like Michelle pushes me more tennis-wise. She [will] make sure that I’m physically active, and she pushes me to be better—as she should!” Malelega has been working on the Senioritis, and it must be nice to have at least two people there to keep her showing up. Two different people who are there for her in two different ways. One for personal support, and the other to help her with the job.

As for another senior, Anthony “Tony” Hohensinner, his companion has graduated from Truman and moved on to go to college in Colorado: Hadley Brillhart. Tony and Hadley used to see each other a lot, and that meant a lot of room for them to be friends.

“Last year we were in TruTones together, so we saw each other every single day,” Tony says. “We even hung out outside of school sometimes. We went to Church together for a while. She actually came back this school year—I think a week ago or maybe two weeks ago—she came back and she visited the school, so it was nice to see her again there.” The average day for the two friends involved them seeing each other during lunch. “We usually [saw] each other around lunch, and she’s super extroverted, so she’d just come up and be like ‘Hey, what’s up?!’ and I’d be like ‘What’s up?!’” Tony says as he acts out the open-armed gestures of their greetings, “and then [the] day was better.” Hadley supported Tony in a personal manner, similar to Kaylee with Rachel. 

“She’s been a really important person in my life; last year I struggled with depression quite a bit, and she was always just kind of a light there. And she really helped me find myself, I guess you could say.”  Although some companions like Hadley move on and part ways with you, at least they’ll always be remembered. 

And that’s just it: it’s not nice to be unable to see your best friend as much as you’d like, but at least people like Tony got to have an important person in their life. At least he’s got someone to remember. There are a number of possible choices to make every weekday morning: showing up to school or not, putting an effort into school or not, and there’s another one: whether or not the person sitting next to you in class for an hour is someone to talk to. That decision determines whether or not you start building a companionship with someone who could be a light in your life whether it’s in the choir room or the tennis court.