The High School Class of 2020 Graduates During COVID-19

This article was originally published on May 23, 2020.

Recently, all around the world, people are coming together under one common cause, to give high school seniors the prom and graduation they deserve. Hundreds of thousands of high school seniors around the world are dispirited because they lost their last semester of secondary school, their prom, and for many their graduation due to COVID-19. For many of the high school seniors they left for spring break without realizing, it could be the last time they see their friends before they go off to college or the next chapter of their life.

Even though they may never see their friends again for a long time, many parents, teachers, actors, and singers, made it their job to lift high school senior’s spirits and give them the graduation they deserve. Recently NBC, ABC, FOX, and CBS news channels came together to air a graduation ceremony on May 16, 2020, known as Graduate Together for high school seniors. This ceremony was a way for high school seniors around the world to have a chance to feel special and be able to graduate. People such as Malala Yousafzai, President Barack Obama, Timothée Chalamet, LeBron James, Charli D’Amelio, Dixie D’Amelio, H.E.R., Jonas Brothers, Loren Gray, Bad Bunny, Chika, YBN Cordae, Brandan Bmike Odums, Ben, Jonah, and Henry Platt, Megan Rapinoe, Yara Shahidi, Pharell Williams, and Lena White all gave speeches or performed for the class of 2020.

The high school class of ‘20 may have been born during the 9/11/2001 events, started kindergarten amidst the California wildfires, spent their last year of elementary school during the Boston Marathon bombing, started middle school during the Yosemite National Park fires, and were supposed to graduate high school amidst COVID-19, however, we all believe they will do exceptional things even though they have faced adversity.

Even though we may not be able to give them back their entire last semester of high school, we can wash our hands, limit the amount we go out, and stay safe, in order to bring back hope for the high school class of 2020. Many high school seniors may be disconsolate, but they will never be forgotten.