Unfortunately this year due to the Covid-19 restrictions, Graduating students of 2020 will not have the typical graduation ceremony or Prom. Some students may not have anything until 2021. Some students are having a virtual graduation. Some students have been creative and put together a video of all their classmates in their graduation attire while social distancing at home. It’s so much a different way to commemorate their successful completion of either grade 8, grade 12, college or university.
I don’t have a child graduating this year, but I can’t help myself to feel that a little piece of tradition has been robbed from them. Their parents have been robbed too. It might seem like a trivial thing, but to those students and their families, it’s a very important milestone. Graduation ceremonies represent all the hard work the students have put into their education over years. It’s also a celebration of how far those students have come as a person, how much they’ve grown into a mature young person. It’s a celebration of what accomplishments they have made regardless of any awards they would have won. It’s a celebration of their past achievements and a recognition that their future has so much potential. To the student’s parents, this tradition of a graduation ceremony marks a major success in their child’s life. That feeling of being so proud while their child walks across the stage to receive their diploma. I still have that feeling and thinking about it makes me want to cry again. Of course the parent’s are going to still be proud of their child, but not having that one day to be able to see their child recognized for their efforts, I don’t believe will feel the same.
Graduation ceremonies mark a monumental milestone. One that this year Covid-19 has taken among so many things. However, for Payton, to commemorate her graduation, she decided to have a photoshoot wearing her graduation dress. Of course when your dreams are becoming a veterinarian or vet tech, you have to have some taken with the reason you want to choose this profession. The animals you love and for Payton, it’s her horse.
