The most memorable moment of my life at the moment is graduating from high school (J.L. Mann High school) during a pandemic. In March 2020, things were not looking too good for in-person graduation or prom due to the spread of COVID. Every senior was very nervous and worried if we’d ever get the opportunity to walk across the stage for high school graduation.
June 3rd, 2020 was the original date that we were supposed to graduate. June 3rd was not only the day I was supposed to graduate, but that is also my mother’s birthday. I felt like graduating on her birthday would’ve been a cool gift. But COVID-19 had other plans.
COVID was spreading rapidly throughout the US so fast that schools were doing drive-through graduation with no ceremony. At this time, my peers and I had no hope of having a normal graduation ceremony.
Weeks of being hopeless and worried. The Greenville County School District announced that we are going to have a somewhat of a normal graduation ceremony on May 29th. What made our graduation not as normal as a usual ceremony is we were only able to invite two guests. But we as graduates were just thankful that we are able to walk across the stage to receive our diploma. After the graduation ceremony, it was much of a relief, disbelief, and bittersweet to be completely finished with high school. Although I was relieved to be finished with high school, the next worry was, am I going to be able to reside on campus for my first year. Weeks before its time to move into my dorm, South Carolina State University sends an email stating that we will not be having in-person classes nor will students be able to reside on campus. The year 2020 was the most memorable year for me.
