2020 has been off to a rough start and it seems like this year has lasted much longer than most, and while we joked in 2019 that we'd be starting the new Roaring 20's, we forgot about the 1920s, that led to a Great Depression. For many seniors graduating class of 2020 (high school and college), things have been a little weird. Your commencement ceremony was either held virtually on Zoom or you were able to have a drive-by graduation put on by your school or your family. You missed out on walking across a stage and receiving your diploma. Your graduation trips were canceled, your family couldn't celebrate with you, and many of you weren't able to hug your friends goodbye and wish them the best of luck on their future endeavors.
For college seniors, things were put on an awkward pause. You don't know when you can return to your dorms or apartments to pick up the rest of your belongings and move out, especially if you went home for your one-week Spring Break and weren't able to return to your college town. You're not sure if your graduate school classes will be held on-campus or online. The job you applied for is not allowing you to work, so it feels like you're suspended in time.
But what can be done, really? All we can do as a collective group is to sit and wait until we hear some good news, or see some positive changes. While some states and countries are slowly reopening and allowing people to return to work and the "new normal" is put into effect, other states are stuck in the Twilight Zone, with their residents unable to visit family, gather to celebrate graduations and marriages and other joyous events, and many people have found themselves still unemployed, wondering how to pay their bills and support themselves and their families.
For those of us that have graduated as the class of 2020, we must look at the bright side. We will go down in history as the class that graduated in a pandemic. We must remember the changes that were made and the new things we learned and had to adapt to. We must not take for granted the positives that have come from this. We learned new skills and picked up on old hobbies. We spent more time connecting with family and friends. We laughed, we cried, and we tried to make the best out of this terrible situation. We will come back stronger, more knowledgable, and hopefully, more humane and caring. We will be the class that history will never forget.
