Pinellas grads take lessons from a high school life that began with COVID

Seminole High senior Emily Nichols has vivid memories of the school’s 2020 “drive-by” graduation. Nichols — then just finishing eighth grade — sat in the passenger seat beside her older sister, whose in-person commencement ceremony was waylaid by the COVID-19 pandemic that cropped up only weeks earlier. “She was devastated,” Nichols said of her sister, who had regaled her with stories about how great high school was. “It was so anticlimactic.” Still, as she entered Seminole, Nichols remained enthusiastic. “I actually was expecting a lot,” she recalled. “I was expecting...