A bittersweet moment for the Class of 2020

This weekend our neighborhood organized a parade for the Class of 2020.

We decorated our front lawns with signs for the graduates to see as they drove through the streets behind a motorcycle and a fire engine. The long line of graduates snaked through the neighborhood in their vehicles, which were all decked out for the occasion. As they passed our house, we whistled and waved and cheered.

Our sons asked me why we hadn’t had the parade other years. I told them how the Class of 2020 has missed out on so many fun and memorable experiences this spring, including their graduation ceremonies.

The parade was so much fun, but it was also a consolation prize for a class that has been through so much.

Heartbreaking as this experience is for the Class of 2020—and it is—I also find the Class of 2020 intriguing and inspiring. Graduations, to me, are always bittersweet—a happy and exciting achievement touched with the sadness of goodbyes. But as I consider this class, I see that magnified. It makes me wonder how these young people may be shaped by this experience, perhaps defined by an inner strength and an unusual perspective on life.

As you get older, you discover that much of life is a mixture of feelings. Rarely do you experience one simple, clear emotion. At the most joyful moments, you can find yourself grieving the people who aren’t there. At the saddest, scariest moments, you feel grateful for those around you who are supporting you. As you rejoice that one chapter is beginning, you might feel sad leaving another behind.

When I think of the Class of 2020’s experience, I think they may be learning a lesson that many of us don’t learn until later in life. In a moment that should have been happy, they might be full of pride, sadness, gratitude, anxiety, frustration, joy, or something entirely different.

They’ve lost so many of the traditional senior-year moments. But maybe they’ve also found something too. Maybe they have deepened relationships with friends and families. Maybe they have a special connection with the global Class of 2020—students everywhere who are experiencing this loss apart, yet together.

The Class of 2020 has brought the rest of us together, too. That’s what I realized on Saturday, as my neighbors and I assembled homemade signs to celebrate these students. The children may not have understood, but the adults? We have some idea what these students have missed out on this spring. We feel for them. And we’re struck by how these graduates are approaching this time with purpose, hope, grace, and faith.

“Faith is like a bright ray of sunlight,” St. Francis de Sales said. “It enables us to see God in all things as well as all things in God.”

Class of 2020, may you see God in this whole experience—the joy and the challenge. May you feel His hand in yours as you walk into the future, unsure what lies ahead, but certain you’re prepared and that you are never alone. And may you greet the future with confidence and hope, knowing it will be just a little better because of you.

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