To The Class of 2020: You Deserve So Much More Than This

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graduationUnder normal circumstances, this is the time of year when the school year is winding down, and students are getting ready for a nice leisurely summer break. More importantly, some students are getting ready to culminate all their hard work with graduation, whether it be from college, high school, 8th grade, or even 5th grade. COVID-19 has taken a lot from us as a world, and for me, and there is nothing more disappointing than the missed opportunity to celebrate our children’s milestones. Their birthdays, sporting events, and, most importantly, their graduations.

My daughter, who just turned 11 in quarantine, should be getting ready for her Stepping Forth Ceremony from 5th grade into middle school. It’s been an event that we have all looked forward to. To see her walk the stage of her school after six years and receive her certificate. To have her walk down her school’s hallway where all the students (including her little brother in kindergarten) come out of their classrooms and clap for the graduating class. 

We slowly realize that this moment we have waited for will never come to fruition. It’s unfair. It’s sad. Quite frankly, it’s just not right. The class of 2020 has worked so hard to get where they are, and not having the opportunity to celebrate that is just one more thing this pandemic has stripped from our lives. While I can’t make up for a ceremony for all the graduates, I hope this can help show them that we ALL know how hard they’ve worked and that they deserve better than this.

To The College Graduate

What a way to start your life! You began college four years ago with the ambition to receive a degree and start planning your life. You went through rigorous classes, discovered your passion, and figured out how to make money from it. For four years, you crammed, maybe even pulled all-nighters in the hopes of receiving an A (or perhaps even just a passing grade). Some of you went away to school, some of you chose to stay close to home. You made new friends and really started discovering what you wanted out of life. While you may not be able to celebrate with a commencement ceremony, the great news is that you still have your entire life to celebrate those milestones you achieved. These are definitely uncertain and scary times, but you will come through it. Congratulations on your amazing accomplishment!

To The High School Graduate

I remember when I started high school, I thought it would never end. Then all of a sudden, four years flew by in a flash. Coming in as a freshman with more work than you could possibly imagine. Keeping close with your friends you made in middle school and just trying to keep your head up above water. Now it’s all coming to an end. Maybe you have kept the same friends or made new ones. Some of you are leaving home for the first time in your life, and you’re scared. Scared of college, especially in this uncertain world. All you want is to get dressed up to go to your prom and celebrate the fact that you are graduating with your family and friends. I can’t imagine not having those moments, so I won’t try to say anything that will make you feel better. You have a right to be angry and disappointed. Just don’t let that anger and disappointment follow you. Your life is just starting, and it will be what you make of it. 

To The 8th Grade Graduate

So here you are, finished with middle school and on to high school. A quick three years, and you’re onto something else. High school – where grades REALLY start to matter, where you have to start considering what you want to be when you grow up. You go from being the oldest in the school to the youngest in the blink of an eye. Maybe you just want to stay young a little longer. Just revel in the fact that you ruled the school for an entire year. You wanted to enjoy your last few moments in a familiar school before going on to a bigger one. Or maybe you were looking forward to leaving middle school behind.

Either way going to high school is a big deal, and regardless of COVID-19, it should be celebrated. You learned to be independent. Doing homework was no longer something your parents had to remind you to do, but something you had to do on your own. This was when school started to get serious. More was required of you, and you rose to the occasion each time.

To The 5th Grade Graduate

I have to admit, I’m a little biased here being that I have a 5th grader. You walked into elementary school as a baby. Little kindergarteners whose backpacks were bigger than you. Each year you grew right before our very eyes. You started reading to us for a change. Writing your name illegibly to writing full-on stories. Some of you are almost as tall as us now. Your voices no longer have any baby twang to it. You are tweens, sometimes with the attitude of a full-blown teenager. I’m sure, so many of you are so confused as to what’s going in the world. You just want to be with your friends and play sports that seemed to take up so much of your time. You realize that learning on a computer is just not as fun as you thought it would be. The closure you so rightly deserve from being in a school for six years is being stripped away from you. By nature, your age demands social interaction, which, unless it is on an electronic device, isn’t happening.

No matter what happens, you will always be our little kindergarteners with too big of a backpack. You may be getting on the bus to middle school, but we will always see you like the little baby we put on the kindergarten bus six years ago. You worked hard, we can no longer help you with your homework, and we are so proud of you!

To all the graduates of 2020, celebrate your accomplishments. We may not be able to celebrate them with you, but it doesn’t make them any less amazing! 

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