"It's a Beautiful Life"- Genevieve Galvan Frenes

Day 80 –

As we get closer to the end of the school year, I find myself saddened for our Seniors and others graduating in 2020.

Yes, the districts are doing the best they can to celebrate such a momentous occasion. They’re creatively planning and organizing to make this event as safe, special, and beautiful as the ceremony can be. There’s no doubt that they too are feeling a little sad about the situation.

Yes, the students will still be dressed in their caps and gowns, looking beautiful and handsome. Their families will be nearby, maybe just immediate family standing at a distance, or seated in a car as they go through in drive through fashion. Their smiles will be on their faces as the event unfolds, yet inside they are feeling their heartstrings pull in various emotions of joy, sadness and even anger, as they think of this virus which took away their child’s day.

Yes, the teachers will celebrate alongside their students, social distanced of course, and clap, holler, and cheer for the students who once filled their classrooms with personality and laughter. They’ll reminisce about the kids who always said the wrong thing at the wrong time, or the student who asked, “What are we doing?” as the class groaned a sigh, and the teachers will smile because even they know, those students are missing them, too.

And even if one of my own children isn’t graduating this year, I think of the parents who want so desperately to throw a huge party, to celebrate way into the night, and to express the pride they feel about their child and all of his or her achievements. Yet, they cannot do so, due to the fear of spreading the illness.

How much everything has changed in just one year.

So… how do we alter our mindset to deal with the occasion of graduation coming our way?

I try to think of the changing of seasons… how when we change from summer to fall or winter to spring, there is a sort of anticipation we feel depending on our preference of the cold or heat. We desperately want the season to change and then we’re relieved for a new one to come. Soon, we grow tired of that season and long for the next one to arrive.

We’re never quite satisfied, but there is always hope that the next season will be the one which is better than the current one.

So when this changing of season comes, meaning when the virus has diminished, we’ll be able to celebrate like we hoped. That day will still be on the horizon.

The great beauty of time is that it requires us to be patient and still.

In this case with the virus, it has demanded us to remain very isolated and away from the ones we love and places we so wish to be.

But in the process of this time, most would agree that we’ve gained a better appreciation for the love of friends and friends. We’ve also cherished the idea of face to face conversation, the human contact of those we long to see, and the mere beauty of a hug. That expression,”I wish I could just hug you right now,” has such immense meaning now more than ever before.

I’m certain that in the coming season, as things begin to improve and places, businesses, and restaurants open up, we’ll begin to celebrate a little bit more. Some will be more cautious, and others will head out into society full force, running to get outside their doors.

It will be at a different time and place and might not be what we wished for; however, it will still be there.

I see us there…with our smiles in the distance.

We’ve been very patient, I know. We might just have to be a little more patient.

It’s in that waiting when we’ll see, feel, and cry with joy that this new season has finally come and lifted us from the haze, this haze of uncertainty which loomed unrelentingly as we waited in isolation for months, alone, bored, yearning for human contact.

And as the students graduate in the next few weeks, teachers everywhere will be smiling in the distance, so proud of the young men and women they see earning their degree, and wishing the grandest blessings on their lives. They’ll smile with pride at this particular Class of 2020, as they witness them persevere ahead despite a hand dealt to them that wasn’t fair at all.

And despite everything, our students will beam on their special day, diploma in hand, surrounded, at a distance, by those who love them.

Stay blessed everyone…

In the coming season, life will be filled with an everlasting appreciation of the ordeal we endured. Yet, the wondrous days are still ahead where we’ll celebrate, at a later time, the accomplishments of these marvelous graduates. What a day that will be…