On September 27th at 6:49am the sun was supposed to rise over the east river but it did not. The incoming Hurricane Helene had blocked its arrival making a usually beautiful site into a cloudy gray affair. However this did not deter the class of 2025 from coming together to hold a senior sunrise.
If one were to randomly pull someone from the senior class between the dates of the 25th to the 27th of September and ask them about the event their likely answer would be “contentious.”
Around the first week of September the sunrise had been planned for the 27th at New Wave Pier by the senior events committee—the date had been decided by the committee, and the location by the senior class.
This was until on the 25th of September students had been alerted that New Wave Pier would be closed due to the United Nations being held that week. This led the committee to ask the class where they would like the new location of the sunrise to be, and that is when a heated debate began.
Opinion was split about the best place to go but the two main candidates that arose were Battery Park and East River Park. While the committee had left it to the students in the end, the final decision was made by the student body president Marilyn O’Day who decided that the location would be Battery Park.
After finding out about O’Day’s decision students began to question the date of the sunrise, realizing that the incoming Hurricane Helene could cause the sun to be blocked by clouds. This led to a host of arguments about new dates and the problems with the 27th, which ended in O’Day and the senior committee affirming that the date would remain the same.
O’Day defends her choice saying “I felt that people would become more overwhelmed with college work” citing her main goal for the event was to “get the most people as possible” and that switching the date would “maximize attendance.”
Some students after witnessing the debates in the senior group chat decided to opt out of the event. One of these students, Sannah Hashimi, said “ I didn’t go to senior sunrise because I’m not a morning person” , adding onto these concerns she said “waking up at a crazy hour like 4 to commute on a train while it’s dark was very scary.”
Senior Emma Duek, on the other hand, still showed up to the event, while still echoing Hashimi’s concerns. Duek says, “I have mixed opinions on it, it was really early and I’m not a morning person.”
Some like Senior Fahad Hussain were disappointed by the lack of sun said “I think we deserve a redo” but overall felt that he “still had fun in the end of the day”
However even with the grueling commute at such an early hour many students were still excited for the cloudy sunrise.
Senior Leah Rivera, a member of the student events committee, expressed little interest in the clouds, saying “the sun always rises so that didn’t really matter to me.”
Senior Oliver Johnson echoed her outlook by saying “It was a super fun way for the senior class to bond a little more and we took a lot of great pictures.”
Underclassmen such as Amelia Bose had seen the sunrise and was inspired, “ I definitely would do it my senior year. It looks super fun.”
Overall, while much of the class was disappointed by the lack of vitamin C they received, many were still excited to hangout with their friends and come together as a grade.
