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Collected Item: “Graduation...with a twist”

Give your story a title.

Graduation...with a twist

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

Personal photograph from my high school graduation; taken by Rob Chase

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

This picture was taken seconds before I walked across the makeshift stage at graduation. With the sun glaring down and my name about to be called, it almost felt like a normal ceremony. Normal, save the distance between myself and everyone and the sinking feeling that I still couldn’t quite ignore. My last year of high school was anything but what I had imagined it would be. In certain ways, it felt as if I had missed out on what many take for granted. Instead of the final celebrations and traditions of a senior year, COVID-19 gave me an entirely new mindset. I saw the humility of the world, and also the faults we often ignore. I walked across that stage and into an uncertain future, one that I can only look towards optimistically.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

Graduation, senior, high school,

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Shealagh Sullivan

Give this story a date.

2020-08-21
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