Okay so... not many of you know this, but I am a senior in High school. I am part of the 2020 graduating class in this insane time. I know there has been a lot of rumors and questions as to what's going on with graduation and public school in general, but I for one have been taking online classes since 8th grade. Not a lot of my schooling has been affected. However the milestone of my life, all of our lives, has changed.
I just received the official email that our graduation has been canceled. We don't get to listen to the valedictorian speech, we don't get to walk on the stage, hear our name called, and be overwhelmed by the feeling of knowing this is it. This is the end of High school. This is the beginning of our lives. The change that helps us move forward into something new. We will never get to celebrate, cheer, toss our hats in the air and feel the freedom take flight. We will never get to experience tradition.
Instead we have to sit at home, behind a computer, like any other day. Nothing new. Nothing motivating. Nothing inspirational. A endless cycle of the same thing we do everyday. No shouting or celebrating. No dancing or being carefree for just a sliver of a moment. That moment of being free from school and teachers and drama. Even with college and jobs coming up, its still different. Its still not the same.
With the rumors of public schools opening back up in May we all had hope of getting the experience of our lives. It was something to look forward to after all the hard work we put in to get here. The endless, sleepless, nights to meet deadlines for assignments, studying for exams, writing long research papers and book reports. Graduation was the time for us to celebrate and feel freed from the labor we put into everything. It was meant to be our reward, and now its gone.
People say to keep our chins up, that walking onstage isn't that great of a thing.That dancing at prom isn't important. We should celebrate the fact we're graduating at all, but that's not it. That's not why we're upset. Its not just about the stage, or even the dance floor, its about having and living through the experience of being there. Of seeing it all unravel and feel how uplifting and frightening it is to walk in front of everyone, grab that piece of paper, and wait. Wait and try to calm the excited nerves that we did it. We're here.
Even though we're graduating through a computer, its not the same. And to be honest? It never will be.
