The 2020 Commencement Speech You’ll Never Hear
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of commencement addresses commissioned by The Atlantic for students who will not not be able attend their graduations because of the pandemic.
Class of 2020:
As I stand here on this glorious spring morning, wearing my day pajamas and staring out the window at my garbage cans, I can’t help thinking something’s wrong.
Isn’t there supposed to be some sheet cake involved? Not this year, I guess.
This has been a season of terrible losses. People have lost their lives, and families are grieving. Others have lost their jobs, their savings, their plans for the future. Many of you, I know, have suffered these things too. With; down the aisle; of degrees. We want the day to be distinct, unmistakable, and linked to countless ceremonies of the past. No matter how many graduations I attend—and no matter how much of a hassle it is to get a parking space and catch the shuttle bus and find a seat—when the line of graduates finally appears and begins that last, long walk as college students, I feel like I might cry.
