At the school’s graduation ceremony in mid-May, Victor J Andrew High School’s principal, Abir Othman, noted that students in the senior class showed a quality of taking things in stride: they didn’t get a chance to participate in a graduation ceremony for eighth grade since June 2020 was only a few months into the Covid-19 pandemic; they started high school in virtual mode; and they nonetheless triumphed by getting their diplomas.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines the adjective “chill” to mean “having a laid-back style or easy demeanor,” citing excerpts from Emma Pearse (“She looked just like Joey Potter … Really young and super chill. No one was paying any attention. It was a laid-back situation”) and Erin Burnett (“We’re very casual. I love how at City Hall people come in everything from wedding gowns to jeans. It’s so mellow and chill, just how we like it”).
Their journey through high school saw an explosion of artificial intelligence technology, almost unknown to the general public except in specific settings when they entered high school and now almost everywhere we look. ChatGPT was able to write a story about a road trip with three friends, the road trip being an analogy to high school and this particular graduating class:
Scenario: A group of friends is on a road trip when their car suddenly breaks down in the middle of nowhere. It’s getting dark, and there’s no cell service.
Characters: Sarah, Mike, and Jane.
MIKE (panicking): “Oh no! What are we going to do? We’re stranded! This is terrible!”
JANE (frantically checking her phone): “I can’t get any signal. How are we going to call for help? We’re in the middle of nowhere!”
SARAH (leaning back in her seat, calmly looking around): “Alright, let’s not lose our cool. First things first, let’s see if we can figure out what’s wrong with the car. Mike, you know a bit about engines, right?”
MIKE (still panicking): “Yeah, but it’s almost dark, and I don’t have my tools.”
SARAH: “No worries. Let’s use the flashlight app on our phones. We’ll take a quick look under the hood. If we can’t fix it, we’ll wait it out. We have food, water, and blankets. It’s not the end of the world.”
JANE (starting to calm down): “You’re right. We can make this work. Thanks, Sarah.”
SARAH (smiling): “Exactly. It’s like an unexpected adventure. We’ll have a great story to tell later. Plus, we can see the stars so clearly out here. Let’s make the best of it.”
Sarah’s laid-back attitude helped Mike and Jane calm down and focus on finding a solution, turning a potentially stressful situation into a manageable one.
The pandemic made the start of high school potentially stressful for this graduating class. Yet, throughout the halls of Andrew High School in Tinley Park, Illinois, and countless other schools across this nation, students figured out how to stay healthy and keep up with their studies on the way to college and career readiness.
