Items

• 2020-07-08

  Graduation During a Pandemic

  Freshman year of college was an absolute blast! Up until Corona came out of nowhere in March and ruined everyone’s year. The Corona Virus has been playing an extremely negative role in my life since March. In addition to the virus, it definitely does not help that politics are being thrown in the mix and half of the country wants to defund our police department. But we won’t talk about that right now. The virus took away a lot of things that I took for granted. For example, Friday beers with the boys, weekends at the bar, quality family time with my momom and poppop, and eating out at a restaurant. But most importantly it almost ruined one of the most important things that happened this summer, my brother’s graduation. One week in July, I found out that my brother was going to be graduating Holy Ghost Prep on a Saturday. And on that particular Saturday, I was scheduled to work, but that wasn’t the issue, the issue was that there were only two people allowed per person to attend the graduation due to the coronavirus restrictions. I was very upset about the new restrictions because I really wanted to see my brother accept his diploma, as he did for me when I was graduating. I decided that I was not going to let the coronavirus control whether or not I would see my brother walk the stage. When that Saturday rolled around I left work at 11 in the morning to make my way over to the ceremony. When I got there I walked over to my family and pulled up an extra chair to sit next to them. When I saw my brother wearing his cap and gown I was overcome with emotion and was so happy to see him. When I heard his name get called I watched as he accepted his hard earned diploma from the president of the school, and take a quick picture at the end of the stage. I will never forget this memory I have with my brother. The coronavirus overall has put limitations on what everyone can do. Whether that be go to a store with only a certain capacity, not finishing a sport you started when you were 5 years old, or seeing loved ones you haven’t connected with in a long time. I think the most important takeaway from this virus is to never again take for granted all of the good things you have in your lifetime, because you never know when the world will turn upside down again.