{"id":2457184,"date":"2020-04-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=324374"},"modified":"2020-04-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T06:00:00","slug":"meredith-c-carroll-a-different-kind-of-class-of-2020-commencement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/meredith-c-carroll-a-different-kind-of-class-of-2020-commencement\/","title":{"rendered":"Meredith C. Carroll: A different kind of Class of 2020 commencement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It may have been easier to accept my high school graduation moving indoors had it rained all day. Instead, the sky passed the morning and afternoon leading up to the ceremony only sneezing and spitting intermittently, essentially rubbing snot into the wound. No one could remember a time when the Mamaroneck High School senior class didn\u2019t walk across the stage erected in the middle of the football field in late June to a tidal wave of classmates, educators, family, friends and community members spilling out of the metal folding chairs into the bleachers and onto the sidewalks. While the school auditorium managed to adequately accommodate a smaller celebration, the jubilation in the room was less a bunch of balloons than a lone deflated one.<\/p>\n

Imagine how the Class of 2020 must feel.<\/p>\n

In lieu of copying, pasting and partaking in the beloved traditions chartered by the seniors before them, this year\u2019s graduates will instead have to look back \u2014 way back \u2014 for reference on how to rise from the ashes of a global catastrophe and bushwhack a new pathway for not just themselves but those who will follow soon after.<\/p>\n

Beyond a mere bad job market or even a recession, another graduating class likewise was once forced to enter a world transformed virtually overnight into something eminently unrecognizable and wholly less desirable. The Greatest Generation, otherwise known as the Class of 2020\u2019s great-grandparents, were thrust involuntarily into suffering and sacrifice, growing up in the Great Depression only to be drafted afterward into World War II. The casualties sustained were inconceivable, but fortunately so too were the achievements of those who managed not to just persevere, but also thrive.<\/p>\n

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