Dear Graduating College Senior,
Time’s are tough right now, but remember we are tougher. So much has happened since we unpacked our belongings into our dorms 4 years ago and began our journey through something called "college." We had a hard time facing the fact that we had to leave our families, leave our homes, and leave the best friends that we had for an upward of 10 years at that point. Everything was new, kind of exciting, and most definitely terrifying. We never would have guessed 4 years ago that we would end up just a few months from graduating, in square one, just with the opposite mindset. Most of us are at home, nice and close to our families in the town where we grew up, only four minutes from our childhood friends that we've kept for 14 years now, who we most likely can’t even see because of social distancing. We are so fortunate to be safe in our homes with the ones we love most, but of course we still wish we were experiencing our last few weeks as college students before the real world hits us.
We grew up so much in the past 4 years, made lifelong friends, and endless memories. We accumulated lots of stress, happy times, exciting times, and even sad times: all of which we wouldn’t trade. Now instead of waking up each morning and dragging ourselves to class, we are rolling over to log onto our laptops. Instead of complaining about the millions of people in the gym when we try to work out, we are trying to stay motivated each day to do a workout alone. Instead of trying on 12 outfits every Thursday night to wear to the bar, we are doing a full face of makeup once a week just to remember what it feels like. Instead of getting to walk into a professor’s office on any given day, we are emailing them, or if we are lucking video chatting with them. Instead of having a movie night with the roomies, we are all face-timing our friends. Technology is great but nothing adds up. Instead of walking across the stage in a few weeks to receive our well-deserved diplomas and taking millions of graduation pics with our friends, we are sitting at home trying to make it through classes, knowing that in 2 months we will get our diplomas in the mail.
A lot has changed, so for the quarantined class of 2020, here are a few words. We are all in this together. We can’t give up what we spent the past 4 years creating. You can take the last few weeks of school from us, but you can’t take away the years of memories. All the friends we made, the professors that guided us, the dining hall food, late nights out with friends, almost burning down the apartment trying to make cookies, early morning study-sessions, dancing all night long, and everything in between. All of the dinners in the town’s staple restaurants, the football game tailgates, the spring concerts, homecomings, themed parties, library and coffee dates, trips out of town, and school social events. We, more than anyone will be able to hold these memories closer for the rest of our lives. We may be in quarantine, but we will still make it through. We will graduate, get jobs, and visit our apartments one last time. We will have our friends, our memories, and our stories to tell forever. That must count for something.
So, to the class of 2020, we got this…together. I always dreaded graduating and saying goodbye and counting down the last days of school. We must learn to be careful what we wish for in the future because I didn’t have to do any of that. College was taken from under my feet in the matter of a few days. There were no goodbyes, no count downs, no last-time walking into classes, not even any last girls night out while at school. There were no final meetings, senior dinners, senior trips, or end-of the year pizza parties. Every last class, meeting, party, night out, and roommate dinner happened without us even knowing. Now it is time to reflect on the memories and accomplishments we have created during our time in school. These past 4 years shaped us into who we are now, and we don’t want to leave this chapter of our lives on a negative note. We must think of the positive times and amazing friends that we made in college, because the only thing we have left is what we make of it: the memory that we decide to keep in our minds forever. Let’s make it a good one, class of 2020!