Dear Graduating Class of 2021

Another crazy, pandemic-altered scholastic year in the books.  One thing still the same, however, is my annual message to graduates.....

To the graduating class of 2021,

Wow, what a final year of school that was, huh?!  You probably spent more of it learning online than in a classroom or lecture hall, depending on whether you lived in a 'red' state or a 'blue' state.  (You'll learn more about the color of states one day, as we run up to the second civil war.)

Was the year really so bad?  For you and for your parents, yes, yes it was.  Regardless of whether you were in high school or college, not being able to fully enjoy all of the curricular and extra curricular of that senior year had to suck.

On the other hand, your sacrifice, such as it was, allowed academic society to function during a pandemic in a way that didn't endanger more lives.  You aren't getting a medal for that, and not many will remember how your senior year was less than it should have been because of it.

Which brings me to my main message -- get used to it.  Meaning get used to not being praised, much less rewarded, for making sacrifices.

This is going to be a theme for most of your life.  Your work bosses are going to take the praise you want, and give the grief you don't want.  That's also going to suck, but like the pandemic, it also won't last.

If you keep your nose to the grindstone and work hard, you'll eventually be noticed and get what's coming to you.  And another silver lining is, you now have a headstart on how to excel by working remotely, the new way of the future.

Let me put it into a different perspective:  The generations before you also had to make sacrifices that ruined their senior years.  These included things like living through -- and being victims of -- race oppression, economic depression, and war.  Imagine having to go overseas to dodge bullets instead of going to homecoming dances or kegger parties.

Unfortunately, those real, major sacrifices didn't garner them the praise they deserved either.  (Some of them did get medals, like purple hearts, if you consider that an acceptable reward for being hurt, or losing a limb.)

So, Buck Up, Class of 2021!  You got the shaft, similar to the Class of 2020, but at least you got a graduation ceremony.  And it doesn't give you permission to live in your parents' basement forever.