We understand that you are trying to comfort us, we do, but saying things like "I get it," or "It'll be OK," does not make us feel any better.
We got some of what is supposed to be the best memories of our lives taken from us. You did not.
You likely got to celebrate your senior prom, high school graduation, college senior spring and senior week, and your college graduation. We simply do not get to celebrate these things. We don't even get the chance to.
All high school seniors look forward to their senior prom, just like all college seniors look forward to their senior spring and senior week. The year starts to wind down, they start to get less work and are able to enjoy the time they have left. We get told by alumni that the spring of their senior year(s) is the best time of your life.
Graduating from high school and college are two HUGE milestones in anyone's life.
Celebrating all the hard work and late nights with no sleep by getting handed a diploma with a big smile on your face because you did it. Let's face it, a virtual or postponed graduation just is not the same and we all know that. It will never feel the same as the real thing should've because technically, we already graduated. No matter when postponed graduation is, not everyone will be in attendance. Some might have moved away, some might be working, some might've enlisted. It will never feel the same
Instead of getting to experience all of these amazing things that would turn into amazing memories, the Class of 2020 is stuck inside, completing the last of our work online when we should be at school alongside our classmates.
At the time, none of the seniors realized that the last time we were at school would be the very last time that we stepped foot at school as a student.
You got to experience senior prom.
You got to experience high school graduation. You got to experience college senior spring and senior week. You got to experience college graduation. Maybe you decided not to go to prom or didn't want to participate in senior week, but you got the choice. We didn't.
Posting pictures from when you were a senior does nothing but remind us of how unlucky we are that we do not get to finish out our senior year the way that everyone else got to. You have never been through anything like this, or probably anything relatively close. Yes, we are all in the same once-in-a-lifetime situation, but we are on two completely different boats.
All we are asking is for you to be a little more sensitive the next time you are talking to a member of the class of 2020.
Hug them a little tighter, give them a little more sympathy. We really do appreciate your sympathy, but unless you are a part of the Class of 2020, you really do not know what we are going through, so please do not pretend to know what it feels like.
Sincerely,
The Class of 2020
