By Cary Anne Fitzgerald, PDHP Parent/Community Outreach Coordinator
Little learners are missing the routines and community of peers that had been nurtured into existence by all the important caring adults in their lives.
Elementary school students look to no avail for the golden time of the last trimester, filled with celebrations, activities and fun to applaud the learning done, the bonding created within classroom and school community. There will never be another year like this exact one.
Junior high and high school students feel an absence of a place they have made their own, examining a richer sense of self within classwork, meaningful relationships, extracurriculars that dig deeper. Each year is a milestone.
Our Graduates look back on all these years that have passed them by and grieve a loss of all this and more; a precious and fleeting year frozen in time.
And yet all this heaviness we glimpse at is in only one aspect of their lives.
What remains? The love of self, of learning, of family, of “academy/school family” (as some of my Family Fun Nights participants say it so well), of others, of community, of health and wellness, of faith, of universality. The hope that these hard lessons will not be in vain. That surrounded in that love and that hope, resiliency prevails.
This weekend, I silently celebrated the College Graduates from my college as they heralded their commencement in all virtual platforms. I saw the seniors from my high school parade in their cars around the surrounding streets, horns honking, tears wiped but smiles wide! I watched graduation signage delivered to 8th graders’ homes. I added to the cheers given online to friends’ children who were missing their graduations, proms, ring days, parties, senior days, etc.
One thing is for certain, the Class of 2020 is already famous; forever endeared and unforgettable to all world over.