Class of 2020

Many of you are expressing right now that you feel like you are missing out on milestones in life. Some of you didn’t even realize these milestones were important to you until they were taken away. There’s a certain sting that comes every time someone offers sympathy, because their pity only makes the thing seem that much more valuable.

I’m not going to offer you pity. For reasons in my life, I have “missed out” on things that it seems like everybody else had. Through my decisions, others have “missed out” on things too. If these were things you always dreamed of, and they’re gone now, yeah that sucks. But if you’re only now feeling their absence, realize that what you’re missing is having this moment in common with others. What you have instead is something unique to your generation. You still have this amazing common thread.

Every story is different, this one is yours. The experiences you are having now are building a narrative of what it was like to be a student during COVID-19. Like global tragedies before it, this is not isolating you from humanity. You will find, when you come out on the other side, this is a bonding point with others. Something you can talk about. “Where were you when…?” And with that, an open door to new friends who get you.

Like I’ve always said “The more I live through, the better the book is going to be.”