High school seniors usually take graduation pictures in their caps and gowns. But in a sign of the times, Logan Nevins took his picture in a hazmat suit.
Nevins, 18, a senior at Timber Creek High School in North Fort Worth, said he meant the photo to be funny but also send a message.
"It's serious but you want to try to make people laugh."
He bought the suit for $18.
His father posted the photo online.
"This is something that affects me,” he said of the coronavirus. “I would say it affects my generation a lot. This is a big moment for us because it affects everybody in this country."
Timber Creek High School is in the Keller Independent School District. The district’s website said the graduation ceremony was still set for May 23 at Dickies Arena but administrators said they are working on possible alternative dates if restrictions remain in place.
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Nevins was born a few months after the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001.
For him and other high school seniors, the pandemic has already become the defining event of their generation.
"High school? Up til this point, it was pretty chill,” Nevins said. “I was having a lot of fun with being a senior."
But like so many others, the virus is turning his life upside down.
"Now everything is up in the air,” he said. “You don't know what you are going to do."
His mother doesn't know either.
"I think it's harder on me than it is on him,” Melanie Nevins said.
Logan Nevins said he misses school life -- his friends and even his teachers.
The pandemic has broad ramifications for the senior class, he said.
"It's kind of like not being an adult, really,” he said. “Because whenever you graduate high school, that's when you're considered an adult."
Nevins plans to go into the U.S. Army this summer. His enlistment date is June 1 so he may miss his graduation ceremony.
"I'm just going to miss that kid,” his mother said. “I'll try to get as many pictures of him as I can before he leaves."
Asked what advice he has for his generation and everyone else, Logan Nevins didn’t hesitate.
"A lot of times, your best moments always come after the hardest ones,” he said. “I'd say always think about that."
