Graduation showed us opportunity

We’ve learned a lot.

That’s been said often during the coronavirus pandemic.

It was true again Saturday.

Jay County High School held its drive-in graduation ceremony in the “driving range” parking lot.

When the plans for the event were announced in April, there was some pushback on social media.

It was a travesty, the narrative went, that this year’s seniors would not have their graduation ceremony in the JCHS gym as more than four decades of classes had done before them.

That experience was being “taken away” from them.

It seemed, to some, that such a change was a disaster.

The reality that played out last weekend was far from disastrous.

There were a lot of smiles. Students and their families alike seemed to generally be happy.

Admittedly, two factors helped. One, restrictions had been lifted to the extent that graduates were allowed to walk across the stage. Two, it was a beautiful, sunny day.

While we’d prefer that circumstances not force our hands when planning something like graduation, Saturday’s event was also a good reminder that everything does not have to stay the same as it has been for the last 44 years in order for it to be special.

We’d suggest that next year’s graduation ceremony should not revert back to the familiar event that is held every year. No future graduation ceremony should be forced to conform to that standard.

Perhaps we do return to the gym. Perhaps we bring back many of the familiar elements.

But why not allow each class, led by their elected class officers in partnership with the administration as happened this year, make their graduation ceremony unique?

Maybe they’d like to decorate the gym in their own special way. Maybe they’d like to choose their different music to walk in to instead of “Pomp and Circumstance.” Maybe they’d like to sit in something other than alphabetical order.

Or maybe they’d like to explore larger changes, like holding graduation outside at the football stadium.

The number of modifications, large and small, that could be made is limited only by the imaginations of the students involved.

Traditions are great. But sometimes what made sense in 1976 no longer makes sense today. And what makes sense today may not make sense 44 years from now.

Sometimes change is good.

So let’s give the Class of 2021 and beyond some freedom. Let them be creative. Let them put their own mark on their graduation ceremony.

Last weekend’s event was distinctly different from all of those held before it. Because of the pandemic, it had to be.

In the future, let’s offer seniors that same opportunity — for their graduation ceremony to be distinctly different, unique, personal — by their own choice. — R.C.