{"id":73216,"date":"2021-06-18T13:14:04","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T17:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/?p=73216"},"modified":"2026-04-01T19:19:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:19:20","slug":"a-very-merry-covid-graduation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/a-very-merry-covid-graduation\/","title":{"rendered":"A very merry COVID graduation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Owen Charters<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s that time of year\u2014graduation. From high school, from junior high, from elementary school, from college or university. Even from preschool (very cute, if you\u2019ve seen it).<\/p>\n

The lawn signs are out at homes everywhere, marking that a grad lives there. There are video graduations. Quick in-person by-appointment only in-and-out graduations. Sequestered parties where grads can come together in pods. There are outdoor grads.\u00a0 And there are prom-posals. Sigh, the prom-posals. The stories of asking your date to the prom, more elaborate than marriage proposals.<\/p>\n

The big graduation ceremonies are missing, yet again, and it\u2019s sad because it marks such an important transition in a young person\u2019s life. The high school or college\/university graduation is a Very Big Deal\u2014it\u2019s our general marker of gaining the keys to adulthood. We don\u2019t have elaborate rituals to mark when a child becomes an adult, but we have these institutional milestones.<\/p>\n

But however it may be done this year, it\u2019s time to celebrate. It\u2019s time to be done with the studying, the textbooks, and the Zoom classes. It\u2019s time to enjoy a summer before contemplating what\u2019s next. It\u2019s time for congratulations on a job well done, on achieving a major life milestone.<\/p>\n

To all the grads, we salute you. You\u2019ve earned it. And you\u2019ve earned it in the soft glow of a computer screen, the disembodied voice of a teacher floating around you. With your camera on or off, your attention sometimes wavering. But you made it. You did it.<\/p>\n

And now before you lies a world that is awakening slowly from a pandemic-induced slumber, a world you\u2019re ready to take on with all of the exuberance and energy of youth. Make it yours. Build it better. Sorry about the mess, but please fix our mistakes and the mistakes of those that came before us, well-intentioned but bumbling.<\/p>\n

You are the future and you\u2019ve graduated with the bona fides of being the COVID generation. Don\u2019t let that define you\u2014cast it off and make it about what you do, not what was done to you. We\u2019ve all learned lessons through this and not just the academic ones. Apply them and let us build a better society together.<\/p>\n

Welcome to what\u2019s next\u2014an agenda that you will write.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Owen Charters It\u2019s that time of year\u2014graduation. From high school, from junior high, from elementary school, from college or university. Even from preschool (very cute, if you\u2019ve seen it). The lawn signs are out at homes everywhere, marking that a grad lives there. There are video graduations. Quick in-person by-appointment only in-and-out graduations. Sequestered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[83,1024,129,1025,1026,1027],"class_list":["post-73216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bgc-news","tag-clubs","tag-congratulations","tag-covid-19","tag-graduation","tag-pandemic","tag-virtual"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgccan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}