Collected Item: “Graduated but not Graduating”
Give your story a title.
Graduated but not Graduating
What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?
screenshot
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.
The screenshot is a cancellation email from graduation services letting us know that our graduation was being postponed, ultimately it was canceled altogether. Like many, I also lost the opportunity to walk across the stage after completing my undergraduate degree in the spring of 2020. Really it wasn’t until I found out that the graduation was canceled that I realized how much the graduation had meant to me. Before, I thought “It's just a piece of paper, who cares if you walk across the stage to get it.” It's more than that, for many it’s a transition from academia to the workforce, a real transition in life that is captured in a moment. For me, it was a little different as it was more of capturing a moment of hard work and dedication as I completed my degree while having a full-time job in the military. Also, I was the first person in my family to complete a college degree.
Not graduating doesn’t erase these accomplishments, but it does alter the celebration of the accomplishments. The pandemic changed what was considered “normal.” We can see this as graduations later in the pandemic shifted to virtual graduations accomplished over Zoom or Skype. Obviously, this is not the same experience by a long shot, but I do think that it is still important to capture these big life moments in some way. I am writing this in March 2022, the pandemic has tapered off and I hope that this spring/summer people have the opportunity to experience a real graduation!
Not graduating doesn’t erase these accomplishments, but it does alter the celebration of the accomplishments. The pandemic changed what was considered “normal.” We can see this as graduations later in the pandemic shifted to virtual graduations accomplished over Zoom or Skype. Obviously, this is not the same experience by a long shot, but I do think that it is still important to capture these big life moments in some way. I am writing this in March 2022, the pandemic has tapered off and I hope that this spring/summer people have the opportunity to experience a real graduation!
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?
ASU, HST580, military, graduation, lost graduations, UMGC
Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)
self
Give this story a date.
2020-05-02