The Best Thing That Happened This Week: A High-School Graduation Like No Other

Off they go, into the wild blue yonder …


high school graduation

The year 2020 brought us a high-school graduation like no other. Photograph by
Nutthaseth Vanchaichana / EyeEm / Getty Images

For 13,000 young people in this city, this week marked the end of a journey. At Girls’ High and Boys Latin, Bodine and Carver, Overbrook and Olney, Martin Luther King and Parkway and Penn Treaty and so many more, the Class of 2020 said goodbye without ever really … getting to say goodbye. Oh, sure, there were wonderfully creative meetups and mashups and substitutions. There was a first-ever district-wide virtual celebration. There were songs like Pomp and Circumstance, and Jill Scott and Black Thought. There was Malcolm Jenkins as a guest speaker! But with no prom, no processional, no baccalaureate, no senior trip to the Shore, nobody would argue this generation got a good deal. So this seems like a good time to tell you: We’re so happy for you. We’re so proud of you. And we’re so, so sorry about this world we made you. Here’s to you, Class of 2020. May you do better than we did.