There’s no time for Graduation Festivities and I Hope You Are Rested—Because the World Desperately Needs You!
May 27, 2020 – Congratulations to all the 2020 grads—my daughter, her boyfriend, their friends, my nephew…To all the grads out there—bravo for your hard work!
This year most grads have had their coveted grand graduation festivities whittled down to short 30-60-minute video “virtual ceremonies.” What happened to all those famous commencement keynote speakers that had been lined up to speak at graduation? (And, hey, can’t those big-wigs speak just as easily on Zoom?) What about the all the graduation parties and good-byes?
We all know the easy answer is Coronavirus, but the deeper explanation is just as easy. Although we think of graduation as an ending, the word “commencement” of course comes from the word “commence”—to begin. It is a new beginning for grads. Indeed, in this post-Coronavirus and post-Floyd world, it is a new beginning for all of us. So, I’d like to think that the real reason grads don’t get the parties this year is because they have already begun: grads, you have already been launched into the world. From the moment you left campus a few months ago to do “virtual” classes, you stepped into a new world. A surreal one, but a new one. We all did.
I’m sure that sounds anti-climatic, if even believable. It certainly hasn’t seemed like grads have been “out there”—seniors have been mostly stuck at home and “socially distanced” like the rest of us, but they have still had to work on assignments and study at home. But just try to imagine the possibility of what if–
what if the universe gave you grads (and all of us) these last few months at a slower pace, to conserve your energy for this next important step that is now.
What if the world needs its 2020 grads so desperately that fate gave you this time largely to ‘yourself’ these last few months—without all the pre-grad festivities and the summer graduation trips—so that you could be at the ready for this precipitous moment of the world coming out of quarantine?
“Ready for what?” is the next logical question, since, true, most job prospects may look dim right now. And, true, even after months of grads being largely at home, for a moment it seemed like everything would remain on hold indefinitely. But the tragic and brutal murder of George Floyd changed that when erupted the nation for equality. When the time is ripe for change, change can and does move fast.
Grads, I know this isn’t what you expected, and probably is not what you wanted.
It’s is a curveball. But the universe threw it to you because it knew YOU can hit it out of the park.
Why you? Yours is the generation that is fresh and unencumbered by existing careers and free from preexisting notions of “business as usual.”
Business as usual went out the window with Coronavirus, and then any hope of it returning quickly vanished with rallies gone viral over George Floyd’s death. But maybe it’s about time that we started doing things differently—and you 2020 Grads are the ones to help the world do just that.
For decades many have advocated for a better world—a world of more fairness, more values, and more compassion to each other and the planet—but we have not seen the systemic change for which we had hoped. Many of us who came before you were preoccupied with making a living and raising families, or we felt too small or powerless to make a real difference. Moreover, despite the warning signs, the threat of dire calamity somehow seemed so distant and incomprehensible.
Others, in contrast, although having been concerned, have adopted the doomsday narrative depicted in so many dystopian sci-fi movies.
Even ardent supporters of ideas like sustainability, world peace, or simply of more quality time with family, have succumbed to the storyline that that society will never change, or that the planet is past the tipping point because we’ve done “too little, too late,” and so there’s no hope.
For whatever the reason, society has continued business as usual, with most people just living for the day and ignoring the pain of the world around them,
as if they were bar-hoppers in the middle of a virus pandemic.
And, indeed, while the 2020 grads have been in school the last 1-2 decades, ‘business as usual’ by the rest of us has peaked in pandemics of their own: homelessness, financial vulnerability, continued police brutality and systemic inequality, the opioid epidemic, cancer and diabetes, as well as ever-rampant environmental destruction and natural catastrophes. It’s high time for us to wake up.
With the Coronavirus epidemic, however, many of us began to see how the effects of our past disregard for the natural world may be catching up with us. Science, for example, now suggests that Coronavirus may be linked to the imbalances in our world, such the illegal killing (and eating) of the endangered pangolin in Asia and Africa for Chinese consumption. The pangolin is a cute mammal (somewhat of a cross between an armadillo and an anteater)—and is the most poached mammal on Earth. Further, new studies suggest that air pollution can significantly increase the death rate from respiratory viruses such as COVID-19 and SARS. In short, ‘business as usual’ needs a re-write.
So, what does this mean for new grads? How is this the hopeful commencement message grads need to hear? Actually, it is.
The new grads—and, in fact, all of us—are stepping into a new, post-Coronavirus world.
This commencement 2020 is our new beginning, as we come out of isolation—our chance for the world to reclaim our collective humanity by heeding these warnings that now the time is ripe to make the world better.
You, the Class of 2020, can do just that. The world needs your help: You are the best and the brightest. You have been hand-chosen, so to speak, to be the first graduates to take on and transform this new, post-virus world.
You will lead the way for future graduates, and the rest of us, to follow in your footsteps.
How so? These past few months mostly at home have been your “quiet” time, cocooned inside, even though you’ve still been working hard. Unknowingly, it has also been your time of metamorphosis–like the industrious caterpillar who must retreat inside to miraculously emerge as a beautiful butterfly. Whether you realize it or not, each of you, and our world, have been transformed by these last few months.
And just like the new butterfly who awakes to a dark and confined world and must break out of her cocoon, trust that you possess the power to fly and that you each have all the beauty and innate know-how—and now your degree—to step out to transform the world.
Your class is also uniquely qualified to help make that change because you will step onto this stage free from outdated notions of ‘how it’s supposed to be’ done. The world needs your fresh voices. It needs your dreams, to reimagine the world in which you want to live—a better world, the one you want for your future children, grandchildren, and even greatgrandchildren.
Follow your heart to that place where it sings, and you will uplift the world with the sound of joy. The path may initially look different than the one you planned, but now, with the wings of confidence that your diploma gives you, you can soar to new heights—to wherever you aim.
Commencement 2020 in this post-Coronavirus world is a time for a new beginning. And it starts now, with you.
This is the prologue in the new book of our collective human story.
You each possess your own unique ability, determination, insight, and heart, to reimagine that story, to give humankind the happy rewrite our world craves.
If you could write the storyline, what is the ‘happily ever after’ that you want for humankind, and for the world as a whole?
Lift your voice and lead the way on Twitter @Virtuous_World.
Congratulations to each of you! You are the future, and the future is now.
Cheers to your happily ever after!
