Class of 2020 – Go Get ‘Em
Graduation is always a really important time to our community as we all celebrate our kids’ accomplishment and honor their transition into adulthood.
This year, it’s especially personal for me. My youngest child is graduating.
We’ve all lived through societal challenges-from Vietnam and the Gulf wars to 9/11, the Great ‘08 Recession to the chronic, growing acrimonious divide we have to navigate. However, none of us have been through something like this pandemic before. I see first-hand as my daughter and her friends try to deal with the loss of what everyone thought was a given: the ritual marking all the hard work and long years of school.
I attended Morro Bay High School, and my two sons graduated from MBHS – Ryan in ‘04 and Connor just last year. You may recall seeing Connor on last year’s cover of the paper alongside some friends that have been together since preschool. I was thrilled to be able to celebrate my son at that point, and I was really excited to do the same to celebrate my daughter this year.
We all know the punchline – COVID-19 shows up and messes everything up, as seems to be its style. What’s a father, who owns a newspaper, to do? Well, you’re looking at it.
Throughout the year, we try to get as many kids in the paper as we can, but even so there are many, many kids we never get a chance to celebrate. I am so happy to be able to include all our Central Coast High School graduates, with the support of Morro Bay and Coast Union High Schools, in this issue because you all deserve it. For all of you graduating through an alternative school or system, I’m sorry I wasn’t able to include you. Please know we celebrate you too.
Class of 2020, we are so proud of you, and we’d put the coronavirus on hold for all your celebrations if we could. You can all give Aly credit for this, I wanted something special for her and 213 of her closest friends.
I hear people claim this generation is weak. I think the opposite is true, these kids who were born into 9/11, grew up during the stresses of the financial crisis, and are stepping into adulthood in a global pandemic are as resilient as they come. I, for one, look forward to watching them come out of this stronger than ever.