The class of 2020… born in the aftermath of 9/11.. They were the first high school class to learn about 9/11 as a past event..
Sure there a were a few stragglers that entered the planet prior to September 11, 2001, but for most of them, the world before the terror attacks would be alien.. just as alien as life before the great 2020 pandemic, which canceled their prom, graduation, and memories..
When most of the class of 2020 left the womb, the tortuous aftermath of the 9/11 attacks already had taken hold.. America have been revamped into a nation that would forever be known as pre and post 9/11.. Watching old 1980s comedy movies of people racing down airport hallways to catch a plane at the last minute is nonsensical to this generation.
They were born while George W. Bush was president, but turned 5 or 6 when Barack Obama got elected.
Most of them were older than the iPad.. but 5 years younger than the iPhone.
Yes, class of 2020, you were born while flip phones were still the rage!!
The class of 2020 was born the same year of Sam Raimi’s SPIDER-Man.
Feel dated and stale yet?
They were born when Tom wanted everyone to be his friend on Myspace.
Two when Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook only for college kids..
..and 4 when Twitter started and hardly anyone used it..
Generation Z.. you are the young adults that will now inherit the planet from the millennials.. Besides the pop culture changes you have lived through, you have also lived through a lot of other events that shaped and created the world we live in..
The wreckage of 9/11 was a memory by the time most of you entered this planet… but not the aftermath. Your parents undoubtedly were quite scared for your future.. What kind of a world would you grow up in, they wondered… what horrors would you see?
And you did live through them.. beheadings and other carnage of war.. Afghanistan, the endless American battle, and Iraq.. these war sequences graced the background of your childhood.. Scenes of devastation were on television sets while your parents fed you.. played with you.. and helped with your homework.
You also lived through a Great Recession.. a bank bailout.. a complete and total economic collapse and recovery.. you witnessed Osama Bin Laden being killed by the United States military and dumped into the ocean. I wonder if you pondered why this was so important for the nation.
Your future looked brighter for a time when Barack Obama made history and become the first African American elected president.. but that mantra of hope and change wore thin quickly.. But your faded away from the political world and entered the amazing world of online antics. Twitter.. Facebook.. the world was your toy.. And come time for graduation, you became busy Tik Tok-ing away..
It came a long way from the Myspace of your youth …
And then you saw a 20th century star turned Apprentice star become the president.. All before you were permitted to vote in an election, drink in a bar, or fight in a war..
This year was going to change everything..
This was your year..
Your moment.
And then a virus emitted from China, spread around the world, and within months, lockdowns led to your social life, school life, prom, and graduation all being canceled ..
You are coming of age during a pandemic.
You are entering adulthood being forced to wear a mask.. that mask is either hiding your smile about completing 12 years of school… or hiding a tearful frown lamenting everything that was meant to be, but now lost..
This is not how it was supposed to be.. This was not how it was supposed to end.
However, the class of 2020 should be humbled to know the world weeps with them. The cards dealt an unfair blow.
Yes, you have gone from the class of 2020 to the Covid-19 class.. There have been rushed goodbyes.. kisses in hallways that never happened.. and deep and meaningful moments with friends at sundown that were meant to be that did no occur..
My advice is to breathe. Let go of the control that you thought you had. Realize that there are a lot of things that you can’t control, and focus on the things that you can control. The older I get, the more I realize that being a control-freak was one of my worst personal attributes.
I was given a copy of a videotape of 9/11, which was shot by my friend who was studying at NYU at the time. Raw footage of the entire event from an apartment 10 blocks away from the World Trade Center. For years, I’ve been meaning to convert it to a digital file and, last year, I finally did.
I sat down and watched it and all of those feelings of hopelessness came back, and that’s how you’ll feel for the rest of your life when somebody mentions the coronavirus outbreak. But someday, you’ll realize that you made it through, and it made you and everybody you know a better person. And that’s what I realized when I watched the video, 19 years later.
Love you guys. Stay strong.
THE MERRY MONTH OF MAY BEGINS.
THE FINAL MONTH OF THE SCHOOL YEAR FOR THE CLASS OF 2020 THAT WOULD BE..
