To the Graduating Class of 2020

 

Born in the shadow of 9-11,

You were a beacon of light when the world seemed to have gone mad.

Parents worried what kind of world we were bringing you into

But your beautiful faces and new life gave us a glimmer of better things to come.

Something better, something pure as newborn life

Was exactly what we cried out for.

 

You are a generation that I believe has not yet found your strength

You’ve been inundated with media

And more news than any young person should ever be subjected too.

You suffer from anxiety like no other generation previous.

But you share a collective bond that most adults don’t understand…

An inside joke, that only your generation gets,

And that’s how you survive.

 

And now, when it’s time to graduate

And celebrate a culmination of twelve years of enduring tests and quizzes and failures and triumphs

Your ceremonies are hanging in the balance due to no fault of your own.

Yet another inside joke that you will carry with you and make the best of.

I can see your reunions now,

Complete with toilet paper streamers

Because you are survivors, whether you realize it or not.

 

Your wit will make you stronger

Your bonds will last a lifetime

Your sarcastic humor will keep you going

 

You don’t need a ceremony to tell you who you are

You don’t need pomp and circumstance, though you deserve every moment you can get.

You are the Class of 2020

And you will live in infamy.

You will tell your children stories that they will find hard to believe.

I pray this makes you stronger, bonds you together,

Makes you realize what’s important in life

Perhaps more than any generation before.

 

So, to the Class of 2020

I wish you all the best

May you feel the hope we have for you

That same hope we saw back in 2002

When we gazed upon your sweet faces

And knew it could only get better from here.