We'll Remember Always . . .

Graduation Day!
Only this year for  so many who are graduating, especially from college, university or grad school, that memory will not include a walk up those stairs and across that podium.
This is the reality of Graduation in the Era of Covid-19.
A number of colleges and universities are live streaming ceremonies. Graduates, families and friends can join in, watching from the safety of their own homes and vicariously giving a shout, round of applause as a name is called and a graduate distant from that ceremony swings her/his tassel to the side indicating, "I've made it!"
But while this option is available, a lot has been said and written about how this year's graduates are missing out on some critical moment and experience in life.
This year's graduates?
What might we even mean by that?
This year's graduates - from what?
In the year 2020 we have those who have gained advanced degrees - doctorates. They are definitely graduates.
We also have those who have attained their Masters Degree in one field or other. Graduates.
And there are those who have achieved a Bachelor Degree - also graduates.
And then there are high school graduates and grade school graduates and even sometimes middle school "graduates" and primary "graduates."
Oh, and let us not forget about Kindergarten grads and the real cute ones, Pre-school graduates.
We have a whole lot of graduates and graduations these days.
Let me take you back some years, back to my time and my experiences and my graduations.
First of all, back in that day (which would be my day) there were no pre-school graduations because there was no pre-school.
The whole educational process started for some of us with kindergarten. For many even this was not available or an option.
Anyhow, kindergarten meant that you got ready for the full brunt of grade school. It was a sort of warm up and it neither required nor provided anything like a graduation.
So, by the time I was six, I had already not been provided with two of today's graduations.
Yet, somehow, I survived.
The grade school that I attended had no divisions identified as primary and secondary or middle school. It was simply grade school, from grade one to eight.
Thus, there was also no reason to even think of any graduations anytime before grade eight.
And it was a parochial school, run totally and completely by nuns.
And we had a high school as well, right there in the very same building, just a different wing.
And the assumption was that we would simply complete those first eight grades and continue on, seamlessly, for four more years in the same place and process.
So there was also no need for an eighth grade graduation. We were just moving around the corner.
However, all around our neighborhoods there were friends of ours who went to different schools and having graduations. We were feeling somewhat deprived. Anyhow, some clever and rebellious among us (was I one of them? What do you think?) came up with a kind of substitute for our missing graduation.
We would wear class ribbons.
Those things probably got lost in time but back in the day, my day, various grade schools marked their graduates with class ribbons. They were simple things, two ribbon bands, two colors, class colors, worn over one's heart and marking the wearer as a graduate.
We at least had visible class ribbons much to the dismay of the good sisters.
Then came high school.
And I  reached graduate stage at the local seminary high school.
And there we were informed that there was no need for graduation because we, as seminarians, were just moving from one grade to the next, most of us in the very same building (again!)
But the rebellious among us rose up yet again.
No graduation - fine.
No ceremony - fine.
But after our last whatever on the final day of high school, we scheduled ourselves to go out all together to a fancy restaurant where we, as a class,  celebrated our achievement by ordering steak dinners.
That was a splurge of significance, five dollars each not counting tip. (Remember, this was back in the day.)
So I arrived in college still technically never having actually graduated anything.
But college, St. Mary's, Orchard Lake, did have graduation complete with caps and gowns, diplomas, ceremony, the stroll across the stage, honors convocation,
At long last I did graduate!
And went from there into major seminary, which, of course, is grad school.
I suppose we had a graduation after completion of that program.
Only instead of graduation, this was called ordination.
But my education process was not yet completed.
I found myself a few years later journeying to the campus of Notre Dame to work in grad school on a degree in liturgical theology.
After that educational  leg of my journey was complete, there was once again, after all these years, the opportunity for a full graduation, this time with a Masters' Degree.
Cap and gown, honors, diploma and all in that stadium flanked by Touchdown Jesus.
And this time I said, "No, thanks."
Just send me the diploma.
And I hopped in my car and headed back home.
I skipped that opportunity.
So, looking back over the years I have experienced a whole lot of missed graduations.
And know what?
I survived.
And you can too.
After all, true success is not about a piece of paper but what ones does over a lifetime with the hard work behind that piece of paper - what one does with life itself and the opportunities and challenges it offers.
Graduation is a moment.
Education is a lifetime.
Don't let that opportunity slip by.



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Stay Safe!