On March 11, Chancellor Randy Woodson announced the graduating class of 2021 would have an in-person commencement in two separate ceremonies, which will be located in Carter-Finley Stadium. This news came as a surprise, but also a relief. As a senior who spent a good portion of their junior year taking online classes, which inevitably worked their way into senior year, it feels as though there is at least one small piece of normalcy that I’ll get to experience with my fellow peers.
Though this is exciting news, like many others, I am wary about what this means. A commencement that is separated into two parts and takes place outside indicates the University is taking this seriously while also trying to provide a momentous experience to students who deserve it. Still, it’s not so much the University that I have concerns about but rather the collective student body and the choices that we make, such as choosing to get vaccinated and whether or not to have graduation parties when many people may still be vulnerable to the virus.
Still, I am grateful to the University with consideration to how far we have come. In the 2020 fall semester, it felt as though I received an email everyday about “COVID-19 clusters,” and as the semester progressed, I had a hard time imagining life ever going back to normal. Though we are far from normalcy still, this commencement is a reflection of how much has changed and how many people put in the effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19. We not only get to celebrate the end of a formative four years, but also the start of life returning to what it once was.
With this piece of normalcy at the conclusion of this college experience comes the ultimate recognition that the past year has been anything but ordinary. At a time in which I am supposed to be saying goodbye, basking in the sense that this chapter of life is coming to a close, I feel as though I am trying to remember the experiences that I am supposed to miss. What was it like to meet with friends at D.H. Hill Jr. Library to do homework all night and debate on buying Dr. Pepper or coffee to keep us awake? When was the last time I met up with a peer before class to go over notes or talk about the assigned reading? Did that time I bought tickets to listen to the Raleigh Civic Symphony in Stewart Theatre at Talley Student Union surrounded by strangers really happen or was it just a figment of my imagination that I turned into a memory?
Perhaps the hardest part of commencement day is that it is not only about saying goodbye, but also accepting what it was that we had and letting go of what was lost and cut short. Still, I have a great sense of gratitude for where we have been, all that we have experienced, where we are going and the fact that we will get to celebrate this together.
I am reminded of Rory Gilmore crossing the stage at her Yale graduation on the show “Gilmore Girls.” As her mother, Lorelei Gilmore, stands and claps while watching her daughter hold her diploma, the audience is reminded of everything that has happened in seven seasons, from great achievements to painful failures, ultimately leading up to this point.
It’s my hope that we each get to experience that moment and that, despite all that has happened to lead up to where we are now, when we do inevitably cross that stage, we will know that every hard part was worth it.
