Imogen McCulloch was like many students her age, ploughing through the final years of high school while looking forward to the freedoms that come with young adulthood.
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An end-of-year formal. A schoolies trip, often the first holiday away without parents. A gap year in Europe.
But, like thousands of HSC students around the country, the St Francis Xavier's College captain has experienced a "year like no other".
The school graduation and formal might have won a reprieve from Gladys Berejiklian, but the coronavirus pandemic has put paid to other rites of passage.
"My plan was to go straight overseas and hopefully pick up some work and live a life overseas," Imogen said.
"I guess that's not there any more and I just have to overcome that and move on with my life and go to uni.
"It's important to remember that we're all in this together and everyone's in the same boat and we're going to get through this together. There's always someone worse off, and I constantly remind myself of that."
Six months after the Hunter recorded its first coronavirus case in March, mental health researcher Professor Frances Kay-Lambkin said the pandemic was the "most significant thing that has happened to our generation", and many young people had found it difficult, confusing and scary.
"With adults, we've generally had some things we've had to go through, hurdles in our life, but for young people this might be the first thing they've ever really had to encounter," she said.
Imogen said the "constant uncertainty of what lies ahead", including how weeks of online learning would affect HSC marks, had been a "major distraction".
"For myself, it was difficult to adapt to the change to online learning. I definitely prefer face-to-face," she said.
"I have many teachers who weren't so confident with the online learning, therefore they couldn't get across the message to us as well. So on both sides it was hard.
"I definitely think it's played a part in my grades. It's been difficult, and it's certainly been an interesting year and one like no other to be school captain."
Imogen and her friends had hoped to go to the Gold Coast or Bali for schoolies but are now planning a trip up the NSW coast.
"These past few weeks have been when we've kind of made up for the time we've lost with one another, but it's been quite saddening to know we've missed out on a lot of time that we could have had fun together," she said.
Youth mental health service headspace Newcastle says it has received record numbers of enquiries and referrals during the pandemic.
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Professor Kay-Lambkin, the University of Newcastle's Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation, said many people felt a "real sense of grief and loss".
"And that's not just about the loss of life and sense of safety and security in the world, but the loss of some really important things that, young people particularly, we all take for granted about our daily lives.
"Although they might not be big things when you compare it to what other countries or other sections of society are dealing with, they're very real losses in the context of a young person's life.
"You can't undo that now it's done. You can't go back and have the gap year you might have dreamed. And those dreams are really important to have. They can often get us through things like schooling and exams.
"The things that have been known and taken for granted are no longer known and taken for granted, and we don't know when we'll be able to get back there again."
Youth unemployment in the Hunter has leapt above 20 per cent, and at least one major training company has reported employers handing back dozens of apprentices.
Professor Kay-Lambkin said the prospect of a far tighter jobs market was "absolutely" on the minds of HSC and university students.
Mental health historian Professor Catharine Coleborne, the head of the university's School of Humanities and Social Science, said the pandemic's impacts were "uneven".
"We should be particularly in our region really attentive to the kind of socioeconomic status difference in our society, and gender as well.
"Are young women going to be looking at this and thinking, 'Are all the gains that have been made in the workforce going to be shut down again?'"
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