As my senior year comes to a close, I can’t help but wonder how not having my final senior memories will impact me. I don’t think I fully understand just yet the situation that I am in. I haven’t left my house in three weeks, and it feels like I have been living the same day over and over again. For me, there is no feeling of being finished with school since I am missing out on all of the things that come with being a senior.  There’s nothing to look forward to, like walking down the halls of our elementary school, senior olympics, and now graduation. Graduation is the final milestone that we do with our peers so we can finally say that we are finished. Unfortunately, for the class of 2020, we don’t get to live that final milestone until well after we leave high school. 

When I heard the news that graduation won’t be until the second week of August (at the earliest), I started thinking of all the reasons why it won’t be the same. Of course, I understand that there are things that we can’t control, but the changes that we are enduring are creating many questions from the public. 

For starters, the main concern that I have is that not everyone will be able to attend. With normal graduation, everyone had come right from school and had this event planned from the beginning of the year. This year, there are many people that might have to miss out. During the second week of August, seniors will be in the process of moving into college.

For our out of state students, it will be very hard to go to college and come back right after they move in. Not everyone will have the time or money to be able to make this trip back home. These students might also have events happening on campus that would interfere with coming back home for graduation. Another group of students that won’t be able to attend would be those going into the military. Will they be allowed to come back to attend their graduation? 

Another option that we can take into consideration is a virtual graduation. We have to remember that the most important thing right now is to be safe, and if virtual graduation is the only option, it is something that we might have to get used to. I don’t exactly know what this would look like, but it gives the graduating class something instead of nothing. I know it’s hard knowing that we won’t be walking the stage, but we are going through a time where we have to make sacrifices in order to be safe. 

Throughout this time, it’s hard to be okay with some of the things that we will be missing out on. It’s hard to not get the things that we have been looking forward to for all of high school. However, we have to learn how to look at things in a different perspective. We may not have the graduation that we wanted, but we will have to make the most out of the one that we will get in the future. So let’s take a step back and try to focus on the positives. Of course this situation is not ideal, but we have so many other things to be thankful for right now. 

Chloe Ruedas, 12- “It’s sad to think that graduation is being pushed back but I completely understand with the current circumstances. I’m just very thankful us seniors are still going to be celebrated, no matter the day.” 

Jaden Bustos, 12- “It’s been real, it’s been fun. Hasn’t been real fun.” 

Lauren O’Neal, 12- “We could focus on what has happened or we can look to what the future holds. There is so much potential!”