To the box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts on the counter, 

How are you? Are you tired of just sitting and waiting for someone to snatch you up so you can bring pleasure to a wallowing family? There are hundreds of boxes lining the counter at Krispy Kreme today, yet you are special. You bring the joy and hold the lost hope for millions of seniors around the country, but not just yet. For now you are just waiting, unsure what will come to you next. Who will be the lucky family? 

Resting on that counter, you must wonder: why is there such a demand for me? I’m not too sure either, but I think you should know that you are more than a box of a dozen glazed pieces of dough. You represent hope. Hope that comes when you are finally handed through the small window to a young kid who has been waiting two hours for a doughnut. Kids are now lining the street just waiting. The kids hang their limbs and heads out the window, all connected by one thing: you. They all know that they were cheated a year of their lives, no, one of the best years of their lives, but they all woke up today, entered their cars and are now just waiting. Hours may seem like too long to wait for twelve doughnuts with the number 2020 drawn on them, but it does not compare to the fifteen years those same kids have been waiting to graduate, waiting for their senior prom, and waiting for their future to start. So the kids wait and wait and wait. 

The parents are confused. They say, “why wait that long for a dozen free graduation doughnuts when we could drive around the block to get them at Dunkin’ Donuts?” The news reporters say, “Have these kids gone crazy?” No, they are just holding onto a box of doughnuts with fancy frosting, because it is all that they have right now. Krispy Kreme, you are the most trending hashtag on Twitter, and let’s be honest, that is not easy in the world of social media. 

While one might say the kids are waiting for a doughnut, we all know that is not true. I think they are waiting for hope, but maybe more. Maybe for the chance to hear the school bell ring one more time, maybe for a chance to embrace their friends and savor the remainder of the year, or maybe they are waiting for someone to hit the play button on their lives and for their year to resume. 

For some the line is too long, but we all know that those doughnuts will not feel the same tomorrow. Doughnuts today or tomorrow will not make up for the lost time with which the seniors are trying to cope, but tomorrow will be different. There will not be a line looping around the block, there will not be a group of kids sitting on the street corner taking pictures with strangers, there will not be the feeling that maybe, just maybe, these doughnuts will be the start to the end of their senior year.

I might be wrong, you might just be another box, but I think that you are one in a million. 

-Vani Hanamirian