TEMECULA, Calif. – The lens Zoe Medranda sees the world through is more than her camera, it’s her point of view.

“The way I see these flowers, it’s very captivating and they have so much brightness and light, and just the movement you do with your camera and how you zoom in. You can make it look and put a huge story behind just a simple thing as a flower,” Medranda says.

Medranda is one of the nearly four million high school seniors in the U.S., whose senior years were cut short by the coronavirus.

“I think everyone’s response in my class was they were pretty upset, just because it’s our last time with each other before we all go to college. And it’s our last times making memories in class and being with our teachers and just having the normal suburb life. And then it all just got taken away so quick,” Medranda said.

But rather than see only what she has lost, she has chosen to look back at what she gained using her skills as an aspiring filmmaker to tell the story of what it meant to miss out, but even more what she and her classmates accomplished in their time at Great Oak High School in Temecula. Her video went viral resonating with tens of thousands of people who watched it.

“It’s the way I put my emotions out there because I’m not really good at telling someone how I feel. And it’s way easier for me to just put it in a film and show it someone. And they’ll know exactly how I’m feeling,” Medranda said.

She is headed to NYU in the fall. And it’s always bittersweet to say goodbye but especially in a time like this the combination of her college mask and high school gown couldn’t be more fitting of this time as a graduate and the times we’re in.

But even in the midst of her parents standing behind a gate, they still get to see their daughter walk across the stage. And surely prom or a graduation in front of thousands would have been nice, but as she and her classmates embark on their own journeys, her message is true no matter where you go in life.

“Everything happens for a reason, and you have to trust the process that you’ve been put in. And you need to trust in something. It could be God, it could be anything. You just need to trust something and tell yourself everything will be okay,” Medranda said.