Congratulations to all the Graduates of 2020. High School, College, trade Schools and everyone else. You have endured hard trials and have overcome. You will be prepared to lead our future like no other graduating class could. With so much bad happening around us we need something to raise our spirits.

I had to take advantage of this opportunity to recognize our youth in this first of its kind graduation. This will not be a typical finance message you would expect to find on this blog.

Never in the history of the world has there been a global situation like this affecting so many. Many High School Seniors did not get to have their expected Senior rituals. Senior trips, pranks, and Prom. No final day of school getting to walk out the doors for the last time, congratulating and hugging all your friends. Getting everyone to inscribe something silly in your yearbook.

Instead you had to finish the last couple months of school from home, working online for classes that were not designed to be online from teachers who probably had never before taught an online class. This made it more difficult to stay focused and learn and be prepared to take your final exams. And often when you did, it didn’t always work. Many didn’t even have access to the internet to be able to work from home. Not to mention all the distractions at home with siblings, possibly parents either also working from home or laid off work, and many fears and other depressing thoughts crowding your minds.

I had four children doing their classes from home from mid-March through May. My 8 year old had the hardest time to stay focused to do his work when he is used to playing games on the computer, not reading books and answering boring questions. And my Senior, who was trying her hardest to finish strong, found it difficult to stay on task. She had little motivation. To top it off, one of the last and biggest tests she had to take, an A.P. Physics exam, she finished it with a couple minutes remaining but the submit button wasn’t working so she wasn’t able to turn it in. That just broke her. After being so stressed out about it and preparing for it, she felt great that she was able to answer the questions well but then for nothing. Luckily they are allowing her to take it again but now she’s concerned that the new questions will be harder and especially since there have been no classes for a couple weeks already, she may not remember it as much either.

With all those trials, many Seniors still were able to have some sort of graduation ceremony. I do feel sorry for those that did not. My Daughter’s school had all the Seniors do a vehicle parade leading to the school and then everyone in their cars in the school parking lot and then come forward in an orderly fashion to receive their diploma while a large projection screen showed their picture for all to see. It was nice but unfortunately not organized very well. It started later than expected and went longer than planned. We didn’t leave the parking lot until about midnight. But it was still worth it to give those kids a graduation they can remember. 

I am certain that this trial that you have all had to face will make you stronger. You may not see it now or understand how, but since you had to find a way to remain focused and new ways to learn, it will help you overcome other trials that are still to come. You will see clearly with 20/20 vision (pun intended). You will be better prepared to help future generations overcome global situations. Perhaps many of you have been inspired to change your future plans and will now study medicine or science to help find cures. Maybe many of you want to become teachers to help improve the future of learning. And hopefully include more personal finance in your lessons so that those future generations will be more prepared to not have massive debt. All graduating High School Seniors should automatically get their first year of college tuition paid. Unfortunately that is not the case so I do hope you have done all you can to earn as many scholarships as possible and plan to work hard to not rack up huge student loan debt.

One final thought as well. For everyone who had to do forced home schooling, the parents in particular, we want to thank our wonderful teachers who do this every day. They truly have a hard job and only the best kinds of personality can handle teaching a large group of kids without going crazy. So thank you Teachers!

Once again, CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2020 ! May you never run out of toilet paper.