Graduation- An End, But More Importantly, a Beginning

-Taylor Gray and Liam McCaffery

Graduation. The culmination of your academic career. A moment in the spotlight. The chance to be recognized for your achievements, and to celebrate with friends and family alike. For the Class of 2020, however, graduation felt a little different this year. There was no Senior Week, no tearful goodbyes, no cap tossing or tassel turning.

For us, graduation was as simple as flipping on the living room TV. On May 15th, we woke up in our childhood bedrooms. Just like the 64 days that preceded it, we ran the Keurig and drank our cup of coffee. But that day, we felt tense. We knew that graduation would be nothing like how we had envisioned it only two months prior.

On March 13, Villanova closed its doors after Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced that all non-essential businesses in Delaware County had to shut down. Like many other college students, we packed up just the essentials and headed home, unsure of how to process this sudden departure.

At first, the common sentiment was that the coronavirus would be a minor setback. A chorus of reassurances such as “We’ll be back at school in two weeks” and “No way are they canceling graduation” began to flood our group chats and our thoughts, as we, too, did not want to believe the reality that our senior year could end on March 13.

To cope, we moved Wednesday night trivia from the bar to Zoom to keep in touch with friends, complete with self-curated categories. We threw PowerPoint parties, giggling as we discussed the importance of Chris Evans’ sweaters in Knives Out. We became experts in maintaining friendships outside of campus life, a skill many of those who came before us warned would take practice. We took solace in saying, “Well, it’s not over until I get my stuff out of my room.”

Until, of course, we received the news that we would not be going back to finish our senior year. That our “lasts” had come and gone without celebration. We would not get to hug our favorite professors, buy a dollar drink from the local college bar, eat one last late-night meal, or stand on the threshold of our freshman dorms in our caps and gowns.

No heartfelt words or Facebook campaigns could provide that closure.

Graduation, to begin with, is an emotionally difficult time. It forces you to reflect on how much you have grown and where you are headed. Graduation is a goodbye to a significant part of daily life. It marks the end of a four-year chapter that was filled with hard work, long nights, and early mornings.

But, when the 45-minute ceremony finished on May 15, it did not feel like the end we had anticipated. Job offers rescinded, goodbyes left unsaid, did our class really just graduate?

Through all this uncertainty, what has given us the most comfort is framing graduation not as an end, but more importantly, as a beginning. It is, after all, called Commencement. The accomplishments are still there. The relationships we built stand just as strong. Our professional lives will start, maybe just a few months later than expected.

While these feelings of uncertainty, angst, and frustration are valid, we quickly learned that channeling our energy into outlets that we could control was much more beneficial than dwelling on what we could not. We are both fortunate to rejoin the Buchanan team for the summer, Liam just secured an apartment in Philadelphia for his upcoming year of service, Taylor is researching jobs as new opportunities pop up.

Graduation signifies a major lifetime achievement that deserves to be celebrated, and we certainly wish that we could have been at Villanova with our professors, family, and friends. Yet, as we close one chapter and step cautiously into the next, uncertain of what the future holds, we are grateful for the past four years and hopeful, ready to dive into another beginning.