Virtual graduation leaves students heartbroken
Many universities are scrambling to figure out if they should postpone graduation to the fall, or just resort to a virtual ceremony.
Due to the effects of COVID-19 on the United States, many high schools and colleges have started to consider having a “virtual graduation” for the class of 2020 instead of an in-person graduation in late summer.
Whether you are a high school or college student, everyone deserves an in-person graduation. Graduating through virtual means would cause high school and college seniors to miss out on some of the most memorable moments of their lives.
Pushing back graduation to the fall would allow students to experience the in-person graduation they deserve. If administrations held graduation towards the end of the summer, high school seniors will not have left for college yet. Not only would this reunite students after a trying time, but it would also give them the closure they need in order to move on to the next chapter of their lives.
Although graduation is a bittersweet time, it is supposed to be a celebration of everything a student has accomplished as a chapter of their life comes to an end.
During an ordinary graduation, students will have all of their closest friends right beside them. Graduating without the people who have helped you throughout your high school experience simply wouldn’t be right. Graduation is the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one. A lot of times, people lose contact with many of their classmates after graduation occurs. It becomes a final goodbye. Graduating without the friends an individual has made would not do justice to all the great years they had spent together.
COVID-19 disrupted our schools so abruptly that most students didn’t have time to say a real goodbye to each other. Post-graduation, students will be headed to all different places around the world. The chances of crossing paths with some of your classmates again will become improbable.
Graduating in the place you have spent the past four years of your life is also crucial. Getting to reflect on the place you have grown up in as you receive your diploma is another variable that makes graduation such an emotional event. A virtual graduation does not allow students to experience the same emotion and nostalgia.
All students deserve an in-person graduation, no matter how long they have to wait for it.
Approaching her last year on the Inklings staff, Charlotte Smith ’21 is excited to serve as a social media director. Smith acknowledges social media's...
