Jun 2, 2020 1 min read

Who can’t feel sorry for the 2020 high school graduates? Obvious disappointments are dampening the best times of many young lives – not fair! Their world has shut down as unrealized dreams and accolades, never to come around again, plague social events, academic opportunities, sports, the arts … as these graduates face a very uncertain future. Not since World War II or even the Great Depression has a graduating class faced such turmoil.

Through no fault of their own, they have had to make some hard choices and concessions for the safety of others, but they have also had chances to show what compassion looks like for those less fortunate than themselves. That is a good thing.

These kids have gotten a cram course outside of the classroom as the snowflake mentality of guaranteed privileges and opportunities is no longer certain. They are growing up fast with a stronger sense of reality that no class could have taught them. Ultimately, they will have a new appreciation of life and its liberties when we all finally acclimate to the “new normal’ that we hear so much about. So does lemonade have a silver lining? I think so.

Sally Brown-Pawlosky

Hickory