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  2021-05-22

  To Celebrate

  I worked in the high school settings in 2020 when the lockdowns and social distancing were put into effect. For the Class of 2020, the unknown of what will happen and what could happen seemed to weigh heavy on the young adults I taught. However, they also saw many milestones of teenage life suddenly uprooted as proms, end of the year events such as dance recitals, plays, and senior trips were postponed indefinitely and, in many cases, canceled. However, graduation had to happen, and administrations and staff scrambled to figure out how to celebrate the accomplishments of 13 years of schooling (including kindergarten) for their students. In any other year, students would file onto the grass of their home football field one last time, or in an auditorium, if the school graduating class was too large for the field, to the tune of Pop and Circumstance either played by the band or prerecorded; while families surrounded them in the stands cheering, applauding, and blowing air horns, and holding hand-made signs of support, congratulatory nylon balloons of the class year; and flowers and plushies for the end of the night. However, for the class of 2020 many classes held drive-thru graduations. Where lines of cars decorated with school colors and banners of the graduates’ names displayed on paper or painted directly unto the windows to show pride. Airhorns were replaced with car horns and Pomp and Circumstance was replaced with a DJ playing hits, or “bangers” as students would inform me, of the day. The administration would hand the graduate a diploma and a quick snapshot was taken, and teachers were lined up in the parking lot honking and cheering congratulations to the students they never officially got to say goodbye from when the lockdown of “15 days to slow the spread” was at that point surpassing the two-month mark. But graduation did happen and we as teachers did get to celebrate the students, we worked so hard to be ready for the world. Though nothing could really prep them for the next year of lockdown. Fast forward to the class of 2021 and in the state of Arizona we were no longer in an optional shelter in place but “common sense” guidelines; and high school graduations could and would take place at schools that were able to implement social distancing. Most school employees were vaccinated, but masks were still required for anyone who participated in the ceremony and for those who were in the stands. Chairs were spaced out 6-to-8 feet apart, but students were back on their home field her one last time processing once again to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance. However, attendance was limited to 4 tickets per student, an extraordinarily small amount considering parents and grandparents on both sides are six people, and that did not include: siblings; aunts; uncles; cousins; and friends from other schools. Handmade signs, balloons, and airhorns also returned, though limited, students were still happy that “normal” was returning which to them was marking the end of the pandemic.