The Biggest Deal and Then Nothing (2022)

I took the Baccalaureate exam in 2020, and throughout my whole senior year of high school, I felt as though nothing would come after it. I knew that this wasn’t the case, but everyone around me was acting like it was this century’s big event. Everything that came afterward felt postponed, as though thinking about the future was only worthwhile if you survived the exam. There was a general sense of stress more appropriate to an air raid than for what the Bacalaureate turned out to be: an easy “exam of maturity” with an abrupt ending. We had been taking tests for the past 12 years, this was nothing more than the last one. The last weeks of high school were more important, which were the end of a chapter, even though at the time I was trying to convince myself otherwise. After the exam, teenage social life ended and the adult one began. I stopped hanging out daily with all my friends, like we used to do at rehearsals and theatre festivals, and had to begin scheduling our meetings in order to preserve the relationships I cared about the most. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s weird to go from a big group to one on one interactions. Now I look back on that period fondly, and I wish I could see it from the outside. But I can’t, so I chose to see how four other teenagers spent their final weeks of high school — studying for the Baccalaureate, attending graduation ceremonies and prom, taking exams, and going to the seaside. It’s a stage we all go through, even if the places and people are different. Diana, Iustina, Mara, and Marcel, whom I followed throughout this project, are four of my friends and members of Brainstorming București, the high school theatre group I was also part of when I was in high school. I hope that many years from now, when memories have faded and become distorted, Diana, Iustina, Mara, and Marcel will look at my photographs and remember this period of their lives. And I hope others will see themselves in their stories and remember the weeks when they, too, stopped being teenagers and became adults. Diana, 18, a graduate of the “Gheorghe Lazăr” National College, is now a student at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Law. Iustina, 19, a graduate of the “Gheorghe Lazăr” National College, is now a student at the National University of Theatre and Film Arts, studying Film and TV Cinematography. Mara, 19, a graduate of the “Gheorghe Lazăr” National College, is now a student at Sciences Po Paris, in the EURAM program (Europe–North America specialization). Marcel, 19, a graduate of the “Nicolae Kretzulescu” Commercial High School, is now a student at the National University of Theatre and Film Arts, studying Acting.