June is fast approaching, and that means that thousands of local high school seniors (including my youngest daughter) will soon be completing their studies and walking the stage to receive their hard-earned diplomas.  It’s been quite a journey for these young men and women, but has it been a memorable one – or one that they’d just as soon forget?

It’s been a very unique time for the class of 2021 (and for that matter, the class of 2020 as well).  COVID-19 totally changed the educational landscape, and if I would have told you in 2016 (when most of these kids started high school) that their final year and a half would be completed mostly remotely during a worldwide pandemic, you would have smiled politely and slowly drifted away from the crazy man.

Let’s just take a look at what this year’s graduates have had to endure over the past twelve to fifteen months:

A shift to virtual classes – where instruction was given primarily via video lectures.  Ask any kid how this went.  From uneven technology, lots of solo homework, and Zoom fatigue, I’m sure many seniors are glad to be moving on.  If they’re honest, they’ll probably tell you the biggest lesson they learned was how to skirt the rules and utilize technology to cheat on “unsupervised” exams.

No/limited sports or extra-curricular activities.  You were a band kid?  Tough luck on marching in any parades or doing any concerts.  Drama kid? No school play or musical for you.  No clubs, no after-school meetings, and no gatherings.  Played sports?  Your season was cut short – if you had one at all.  Let’s also not forget there was no one there to cheer for you (except if you were lucky enough to play in a limited spring sport – like baseball, softball, tennis, or track and field).

Homecoming?  Prom?  I don’t think so.  These annual rites of passage were either canceled or held as “non-sanctioned” events by parent groups.  Sure, your kid may have been elected Homecoming King or Queen, but it will be remembered as simply a black-and-white photo in the year book, taken in an empty room on a Tuesday afternoon.  Hooray.

The Graduation ceremony is a little different this year.  Most schools are holding outdoor commencement exercises.  At my daughter’s school, instead of walking across that gilded stage, they are marching across a makeshift platform in the bleachers at the football field, while a few select parents watch from clustered seating groups on the turf – and other relatives watch from behind a chain link fence fifty yards away like its release day at San Quentin.  Add in the fact that this will be held at 9:00 in the morning – the day after Memorial Day – ensuring low attendance from working parents and limited faculty (school still is in session, after all), and the whole thing kind of loses its luster.

The coveted senior yearbook?  What’s in it?  I can’t imagine what the 2021 high school yearbook will look like.  Is it a pamphlet?  Is it an empty sketchbook?  Will it simply be a Facebook page?  Twenty-five years from now, do you really want to remember what you didn’t get to do?

The memories the class of 2021 made this past school year – while long lasting – were not great ones.  Let’s hope the next phase of their lives (whether it be starting their employment careers or heading off to college in the fall) will be happier times. 

Congratulations, kiddos – you made it through.