BRI: This time last year I was sweating out vodka under the hot Winston Salem sun as I awaited for the C’s to be called. I did my best not to trip in front of thousands of people as I was handed a piece of paper to say I’m officially ready for the real world. Though my memories of that day are hazy, my memories of my time in college are some of the greatest of my life so far. It deeply saddens me to think of all of the college seniors this year who lost out on half a semester’s worth of lifetime memories and who did not get the chance to be woken up 5 minutes before we were supposed to be at graduation by a hungover roommate.
Today, Hamm and I thought we would have a conversation between a 2019 graduate and a 2020 graduate about the effects that COVID-19 have had on graduating seniors, the final months of their college experience, and the anxieties of an unstable future. Hamm, take it away:
HAMMY: Monday May 18th, 2020 was supposed to be the Graduation Ceremony for Wake Forest University’s Class of 2020 students. We too were looking forward to having pounding headaches under a scorching humid sun. Family and friends look forward to commencement as a dog-eared part of our stories that recognizes our own achievements. I was looking forward to my own hungover celebration, but instead, my peers and I are settling in for Virtual Commencements around the country. I don’t even really know what to expect. Am I supposed to clap for myself? Give a small wave? I guess I’ll drink a glass of wine or something. But I thought it was interesting to think about graduation as this event in our lives that is so transformative, but when we boil it down: they just hand you a piece of paper.
Technically, I graduated in December of 2019, and I received that piece of paper via mail in early February. And to be honest it felt very...simple? Incomplete? I honestly didn’t pay much attention to it, even though I knew I was extremely proud of myself and the accomplishments it represented. So now as I watch the Class of 2020 miss out on our official celebration, it has me thinking about closure and phases of our lives. Do we as human beings need true closure before we move on to different stages in our own stories? I’d like to think that there are various ways that closure can be reached, and it’s really touching to see families celebrating their graduates in their homes. My family has made me feel so special and celebrated, but in the back of my mind I keep thinking about a future version of myself, and whether or not missing a graduation ceremony will reside as an empty hole in my narrative. Do you think it was important to have that official recognition of closure in order to move on to your next step last year?
BRI: That’s a good question because the year after college is a really strange transition period for everyone COVID or not. I have watched my friends and peers respond and adapt to this new ‘adulthood’ in vastly different ways. Some are straight up married and others still drink like they are in fraternity pledging. Having the final graduation ceremony and all of the festivities that lead up to it, definitely made it feel like something really big was ending. I don’t think in college I had an appreciation for how big that part of my life was until it ended and I got ready to move on to the real world. Having the ceremony definitely allowed me to mark an official end to that part of my life and it was a shared experience with all of my friends and peers that made it a unanimous time to move on. I’m interested to see how those who are a part of virtual graduations are going to move forward and if they will feel like they didn’t get college out of them. A lot of colleges, I know Wake is one of them, are planning on having a commencement in person in the fall. Do you think that will be successful for the purposes of closure or prolong the issue?
HAMMY: In a way, yes, but I think what’s even more terrifying for the Class of 2020 is the added pressures of the media, politics and the economy we are forced to endure because of COVID-19. Every day we read headlines like: ‘Things Will Get Worse Before They Get Better’ and it feels almost ungrateful for being upset about missing a graduation ceremony. Are we selfish for being so upset? Shouldn’t we be caring more about essential workers and those who are losing their family members? I have recently come to the best compromise of an answer that I can think of: both things can be true simultaneously. We as human beings can be sad for what’s happening in the world and sympathize with the hardships of others, but we as recent post-grads can mourn our shortened departures from our areas of comfort. We are allowed to be sad and even disappointed and even happy as we think about ourselves before the coronavirus for just a moment, because it’s our moment.
For me personally, I’m trying to play professional soccer, and I have no idea when sports are going to reemerge. But then, how do I begin to create a backup plan when everyone else in the country is having to go to Plan B and even Plan C? It’s very paralyzing, and a part of me wants to remain calm and look at options with an open mind, but there’s another part of me that’s like oh sh*t, what am I going to do? How am I going to have things figured out without any semblance of stability? I’m fortunate enough to get to live at home while I figure these things out, but I want to get out there on my own as soon as I can. I guess I’ll just have to get creative, because most of my older family members keep telling me that things figure themselves out. Do you think that things have figured themselves out for you in the past year?
BRI: I think very few people who don’t go right into graduate/medical/law school etc. after college don’t really know what the hell they’re doing with their life for a while. This time must be incredibly stressful for 2020 graduates looking for their first job in the middle of a global pandemic - but I think a lot of that pressure comes from a system that expects 22 year olds to have a single clue what they want to do with their life. I don’t know anyone my age who is rounding out their first year with a job who is like yeah I love what I do can’t wait to keep doing it forever!!!! My point being that for graduates who are stressed about not having a job right now - it’s going to be okay. When everything calms down, people will need someone to do shitty-bottom-of-the-totem-pole office jobs that make you want to die inside soon enough.
I rushed into the job I have now because I just wanted to have a job when I graduated. I think this pandemic has created a unique situation where it's really hard to have a job by graduation because most states are still on lock down. I would recommend taking them time to really think about what you want to do. Set yourself up for a job that is in the field you want to be in. Your first job will be a bullshit job, so make it a bullshit job in an area you love. I know a lot of people going into banking/business/etc. still have their jobs lined up: Do you think this pandemic is hurting the idea of “you can major in English - it’ll be fine!”
HAMMY: There’s always a little bit of insecurity that comes with being an English major. Half the time people think you’re writing a book (one day) and the other half are wondering if you’re going to become a teacher as if that’s settling. But I think that majoring in English taught me a lot more about myself and that the topics worth investing time in are also worth writing about -- and people want to read it! I think that’s why I wanted us to start this newsletter-blog-thing, because I felt like in all of this isolation, and in thinking about the bigger pictures happening in the world right now, I still have all of these thoughts that I want to get out there. I mean we’re going to have a worldwide pandemic, a graduation, a pursuit of a professional career and a presidential election all happen in the same 365 days...if that’s not inspiration for some writing I don’t know what is. And I guess that inspiration was fueled by my time in college -- I want to think outside of the box about the conventional, but it seems almost impossible to do that if I’m only dwelling on all of the things that I’m not able to do because of our current situation. All of these changes are happening simultaneously, and I feel like the Class of 2020, myself included, feels suspended from reality because there isn’t much keeping us grounded into our futures.
BRI: And that is why dear readers we are starting a podcast! Want to be featured? It will only cost you $2,000 so that we don’t have to worry about financial security.
In all seriousness, the coronavirus has taken a lot away from a lot of people. 2020 graduates are losing out on a really big experience and there’s no way to sugar coat it - that sucks. I can’t say for certain that the world is going to be back to normal anytime soon, but I hope that my one measly year of work experience can be proof that you don’t need to rush into your next step. I hate my job. With the burning passion. Of a thousand suns. It is the worst. Pretty soon, you’ll have a job and you’ll hate it too! We all have long and hopefully joy filled careers ahead of us that will take inevitable twists and turns. Enjoy the time before you have to work, because once you start working you don't get to stop until you are like 70.
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