Graduation 2020 Style

The Doniphan High School graduation ceremony will have happened by the time you read this column. I hope you are looking at lots of graduation photos in these pages. If it didn’t happen because of rain, it will have been rescheduled, again and again...till our seniors have their moments in time. The district has a ‘we’re gonna do this in a safe way no matter WHEN it has to happen’ attitude.

What a different set of memories for this year’s graduating class! They are not paving the way for future classes; they are clearing a path as they go.

My brain has been getting a workout remembering the hoopla surrounding commencement for the Class of ‘70. Here is a mini-view of my recollections.

*Was the ceremony held in the armory? Someone will remember, maybe. Remembering the color of our caps and gowns stumped some of us till a photo revealed the combo was blue.

*Who to walk with? If one was going steady, not a problem. Otherwise, a big deal. For me it was a big deal.

*Who would rebel - opting to dress casually underneath that gown? I was not one. For me it was a dress-up affair all the way. Of major worry was keeping my cap on without having too many bobby pins showing.

*About that cap. We were given strict orders NOT to throw them in the air after we switched the tassels. We ALL rebelled! Perhaps it did detract from decorum, but it was the end of the ceremony. How else to show our unified jubilance and prove we were beyond school rules once and for all?

*After all the photos were taken and families and friends dispersed, there were parties and sleepovers. We worried about grades and credits, sports wins and losses, scholarships and car insurance during our senior years, but we engaged in all the pomp and circumstance of graduation, too: senior photos, the quote beneath it that would define us forever, yearbook signings, announcements, our senior trip to Big Spring (the last school bus ride for some), all the hugs and “Remember you always’” scribbles and whispers.

In an instant it was over. We felt liberated, though some of us didn’t know what we were doing. We DID know what was ahead: work or college or military, and for many a move to somewhere else and marriage. Life was somewhat predictable.

But it certainly isn’t now. COVID-19 has dragged the needle of life across the record of the future for 2020 grads. It’s warped before they get to compose any nostalgic tunes to play back now and then. All these years later, it is even messing with the grads of ‘70. We have postponed our fiftieth class reunion until ??

I wish for the grads of 2020 some hilarious moments of dealing with the small stuff and some carefree fun. With circumstances as they are, I am not sure how liberated they can feel in this uncertainty. We can help by keeping hope alive and guiding by example as we all struggle in these times. We can show them how to be flexible, optimistic, creative, kind and loving, forgiving of self and others, unafraid to ask for help - and always with a Plan B in a back pocket.