Minnesota recently reached 15,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19. We will most likely not be gathering in large groups until there is a vaccine which doctors say could be over a year away. State officials have said that graduations cannot happen indoors or in sports stadiums. Knowing this, our school administration should stop pretending that an in-person graduation is going to happen. 

      I recognize that our school leadership wants to give us a graduation that is as normal as possible, but, at a certain point, we have to accept that that simply will and cannot happen.

      With all of these red and black plans, seniors continue to believe that there is hope of an in-person graduation when the reality is that there isn’t. Our administration should be transparent with its senior class and tell them that senior year is not going to end how we wanted it to. There isn’t going to be a senior party and prom and graduation and senior celebration. That simply isn’t possible. 

      With the uncertainty of a graduation ceremony, we don’t even know when our senior year ends. Is it when we close our laptop lids for the last time? Or when the clock strikes 2:35 p.m. on June 4? Or is it when our previous graduation ceremony was going to be? Or when we pick up our cap and gown? Or is it the date at the end of July that probably isn’t even a viable option anymore? I would really like to have the finality of knowing when the past four years of my life are coming to a close.

      And what happens when it’s mid-July and the in-person ceremony has to be cancelled? Any chance of giving seniors the recognition they deserve is over. If it’s going to have to be virtual either way, which all signs are pointing to, why not put it when our original graduation was and allow us to have some sort of finality to our last year of high school? In the event of this scenario, our school has less than two weeks to pull together a virtual graduation instead of spending all the time now to plan for one. 

      We should treat the situation as what it is, not what we want it to be. I don’t want to drag out this cycle of misery and disappointment over lost events any longer than we have to. Give us a concrete date for a virtual graduation ceremony. Let us finish senior year and move on.