Class of 2020 will forever be one of the craziest graduation year of the century. This morning was my daughter’s graduation ceremony and I’m still going through the feels. I literally have unshed tears lingering in my eyes all day. From the moment they sang The Star-Spangled Banner until now, my eyes have been wet.

I am happy that the school went ahead with a ceremony. It was very limited to only two guests and everyone was expected to sit six feet apart in the stands. Graduates were seated six feet apart as well on the field.

Less than half the students walked at the ceremony, but it was still a pretty big group. When I graduated high school in the mid-90’s, my class was around 300 students. There were just a little more than 300 at today’s ceremony.

In April, the school decided to cancel the graduation ceremony due to COVID, which totally makes sense. In late May, we threw a small graduation party for daughter at our house just to be able to celebrate her achievement. We separated the guests (mostly family) about an hour apart for safety reasons. It worked out pretty well. We thought we were done and were ready to move on.

The school deciding whether to have a ceremony or not was a whole lot of confusion. At first, they decided it wasn’t going to happen. Then, they said possibly. Then, they said they would. When the decision was made to have one, we couldn’t decide if we wanted to go to it. Initially, we decided we wouldn’t be going because it was too dangerous. Then, when daughter went with her friend to pick up her friend’s walk packet, she decided then that she also wanted to go and picked up her packet as well. So, then we decided we’d go. The last minute decision put stress on husband because he had to ask for time off from work and because it was last minute, sometimes he’s not able to get time off. Daughter really wanted her dad to attend because he helped her a ton through all the ups and downs and homework throughout her four years. She said she’d be really sad if he couldn’t go. Luckily, he was.

The ceremony was organized exceptionally well. I was impressed. However, there was a somber-melancholy feel about the whole event with a light dusting of excitement and hopeful joy. It was a really strange mix of emotions.

Aside from all that, I couldn’t help but to be reminded that my 18-year-old was done with high school and will be starting university this fall. High school was a roller coaster for her and her dad and I. Yet somehow she turned out okay, and for me, that’s good enough. I’m not sure what the next few years will bring, but I hope it won’t be as crazy.