By Hannah McKelvey

Executive Editor

To everyone who is graduating college this May, 

I’m am right there with you. It feels like our world has been flipped upside down. Our time living right next door to our best friends has been cut short. Those two extra months we had to figure everything out? Yeah, that got thrown out the window going 100 mph. 

We have been robbed of our last two months of college, simple as that. As days continue to pass it just gets harder. Last Friday, it felt as if I was evicted from the only place I felt comfortable to call home. I can no longer walk into the room next to mine to see my best friend, who is now a four hour drive away. On Saturday, I said goodbye to my closest friends, not knowing when I will see them again. On Sunday, I twiddled my thumbs, not able to relax on my “spring break” because I still hadn’t heard anything from my professors about what is going on. On Tuesday, I packed up my car, with items for every scenario. Whose house will I stay at this week? On Wednesday, as I sit in a house that I cannot call home, I try to write my senior thesis to the best of my abilities in light of everything. 

As the days move forward and turn into weeks, I think, “Wow this sucks.” I’ve paid all this money, spent all this time working and getting the best grades I could to end the best four years of schooling like this….wow, this really sucks. 

While my life as I know it might be flipped upside down, at least I’m not alone. College seniors all across the United States and possibly the world are going through the same thing. No one could have anticipated this happening when we started our college experience. 

Four years ago I watched the 2017 seniors participate in all the senior traditions, like prom, the wedding, and watching the sunrise on graduation day, a day, I imagined for myself this May. Will I be able to participate in my own graduation, or only have memories of past seniors partaking in the festivities? 

This is much bigger than my senior year; this is much bigger than all of us. While I might miss out on those senior year traditions looking back on this will be like nothing before. Life as we know it has changed and in the grand scheme of things, staying healthy and not spreading a deadly virus is worth more than finishing my senior year with friends, even if it doesn’t feel like it at the moment. 

So , fellow soon-to-be-college-graduates: While we sit in our sorrows, let us be thankful that we still have the opportunity of education in the state of a national emergency and hope that once again we can return to campus with all our friends.