Brett Archer, a superfan of the former NBC sitcom “The Office,” is drawn to a quote from the series finale.
“I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you actually left them,” Andy Bernard, a character played by Ed Helms, says to the camera.
That quote sums up exactly what he and his twin brother Scott are experiencing right now.
The two are graduating from Christopher High School on June 4, but they haven’t been on campus in the traditional sense since halfway through their junior year.
With Covid-19 ripping away a quarter of their high school careers and forcing them to finish it at home, the brothers had no idea at the time that their freshman and sophomore years would be the “good old days.”
Brett said many freshmen and sophomores often coast through those years, thinking they have plenty of time to enjoy school events and activities later on in high school.
But for the Archers, they never could have imagined that they wouldn’t get the chance to be the “big dog” seniors on campus.
“At first it was like a little mini-vacation,” Scott said. “But then we missed out on all the senior activities, homecoming, winter ball, sports.”
Brett said he remembered that day in March 2020 when the announcement was made over the intercom that school would be closing.
“I had this really bad feeling about it,” he said. “We had no reason to get out that early. That’s when we found out about the pandemic.”
But the brothers made the most of their high school experience, truncated as it may have been.
The twins more than doubled the required 80-hour minimum of community service. They both played for Christopher’s baseball team, with Brett saying his game was picking up just before the season got cancelled.
Both brothers said they really enjoyed the wood shop class of Andrew Williams and his engaging style of teaching.
They have been attending the same schools since kindergarten, and that will continue at Gavilan College, with both intending to pursue business-oriented degrees and later transferring to a university.
Brett and Scott both credited their older brother Eric, who they say helped pave the path for their college careers.
And despite their physical differences (Brett has red hair, Scott’s is dark brown, and while Scott is left-handed, Brett is right-handed), the Archers assure this reporter that they are indeed twins.
“There’s many people who’ve thought we were best friends, thought we were cousins,” Brett said. “I’ve known people for two years, and they’re like, “You guys are twins?”
