Without hundreds of Carroll County high school seniors donning caps and gowns and making the trek to McDaniel College for their commencement exercises, it may not look or feel like graduation season.
But graduation season it is. And even though the coronavirus, restrictions put in place to mitigate its spread, and the decision to not hold socially-distanced ceremonies in stadiums for those who wanted to attend robbed the Class of 2020 of the traditional pomp and circumstance, graduation remains an important achievement and a rite of passage.
Beginning with Camille Echegoyen, of Carroll Christian School, on Saturday, we are profiling a high school graduate each day of the week through next Sunday. We reached out to the schools for good examples of well-rounded students who are worthy representatives of the their class. The schools did a great job.
These kids, actually — now — these adults, have a lot going for them. Excellent students. Lots of extracurricular activity, often in student government. Many of them athletes, musicians, members of various clubs. All of them with bright futures, having overcome various issues to get to this point, not least of which missing the final three months of school, sports and other spring activities, senior prom, graduation, etc., because of the pandemic. We will also be devoting an entire section of a Sunday newspaper and a solid chunk of online territory, to graduates later this month.
This is our way of celebrating a class that deserves to celebrate a little.
Schools and communities are doing some wonderful things for the graduates, from signs placed in front yards to motorcades and parades, to online fundraising campaigns to Carroll County Public Schools’ replacement graduation ceremonies, which consist of seniors making appointments at their schools to accept diplomas from staff in front of a handful of family members. It will be taped and edited together so each student will be able to look back on a graduation that will include as many class members as chose to participate.
Every student from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade has missed out on a tremendous amount since March 13, when in-school learning abruptly stopped and we all became familiar with the concept of distance learning. Traditional teaching. Routine. Dances. Farewell assemblies. Picnics. Field trips. Academic competitions. Award ceremonies. Concerts. Theatre productions. Outdoor school. Playdays. Yearbook signings. Daily interaction with friends and teachers. A lot.
But no one had it worse than the seniors. The good part is, at least the ones we’ve spoken to seem to be keeping it all in perspective.
“It’s not like we’re not graduating, we’re just not doing it the traditional way. And that’s OK,” said one graduate who will be featured later this week.
Said another: “I think I’m going to live every day like it’s March 13th from now on."
And another: “This is something we can look back on and tell our kids about.”
Addison Lomax, a graduating senior from Winters Mill featured today, said what we hope everyone will be able to say at some point — that she has learned from the pandemic.
“You can plan for stuff years out, but when people say, ‘where do you see yourself in five years,’ I don’t think many people saw themselves in the middle of a pandemic,” Lomax told us. “It’s taught me that there are things that are out of your control, and it’s not necessarily the problem or the issue, it’s how you respond to it.”