By: Jaya Bajaj
Graduation can be one of the greatest times in our lives and is a step forward to a new life and new experiences. We all experience change in a different way but graduation is the same for all students. It can be an emotional rollercoaster at this time as some of us are excited and some terrified. Either way, we all know that you are going to miss what you're leaving behind.
Whether it be prom or the ceremony, students may have enjoyed the speeches, dancing, food, and throwing caps into the air, however, the pandemic has changed most of that. The lives of graduating seniors are taking a turn - and it does not have to be for the worst.
Being a grade 12 student comes with the pressure and stress of post-secondary and now you add online graduation in the mix, life might seem a little more difficult, but as students are taught all their lives, when change comes with difficult aspects it can come with good ones too. With life being mostly all online, we are learning to adapt to it, and graduating classes are learning to embrace the new form of communication. Over the past year, staff and students around the country have found ways to make this experience just as enjoyable - even if it's virtual.
Graduating online does come with stress and inconveniences but I think this has also prepared our students for new experiences in post-secondary. This experience is teaching students how to look on the brighter side and making them tougher. When graduation was happening in person all you had was to throw your hat in the air and you were done with high school but COVID-19 has made everything unforgettable.
When people graduated in person there was no problem with minor inconveniences like WIFI issues but sitting on a screen somehow makes people feel calmer. Graduating in-person came with the fact that people were dressed up nicely from head to toe. The worst possible situation could be seeing someone wearing PJ bottoms. To be honest, that would be funny.
Last but not least, when graduating in person there was the appalling human connection, seeing your friends, your classmates and teachers for the last time, it is only possible to express that face-to-face, however, if we didn’t have online graduation we wouldn’t get to experience the funny, sad and happy moments (be it from the students or the staff) because one thing that in-person graduation didn’t have was time, it flew by so fast. Like I said before, graduating is an emotional rollercoaster.
To all the students that are graduating, congrats you made it. Everyone understands what you are going through, online learning is hard- it is stressful and we know how you are feeling. Just remember that we are all in this together and don’t forget if you feel stressed out talking to someone, life becomes less stressful if you say something.