2020 Graduations were a successful change of pace

By Marianne Lincoln

COVID-19 has changed everything in the way people interact and celebrate in 2020. School closings didn’t stop our very determined class of 2020 from celebrating graduation from high school.

With cars, boats, limousines and trucks, the Class of 2020 spruced up, painted, embellished and honked their way through a graduation ceremony that has made history. Balloons were tied to cars, sunroofs and tail gates had graduates propped up in and through them. Proud family members either rode along or in multiple cars in succession.

Caps and gowns, were, of course, the order of the day for graduate fashion, along with various neckwear customized by supportive family members. Some classmates stayed to watch others make it though, standing along the edges of the parking lots and greeting them when they completed the conga line of vehicles.

The schools, by virtue of not spending money on large graduation venues, had money to spend on making background screens with the school logos, some which sported green screens for zoom meeting calls on the reverse side. Large celebratory banners were posted on fences and grassy medians. Rain tents, were over everything, but Tuesday the rain held off. Balloon gates in school colors, back packs of goodies and floral displays at the point the diplomas were received were part of the decorative assemblage. Professional photographs were staged for each diploma area, but friends and family were jumping out of their cars to grab shots and pose with the graduates too. Yes, there were guidelines for how many were to be there, but they were only guidelines. At graduation, you can’t often stop exuberance or the impulse to jump into the photo and strike a pose.