By Lindsay Emery
It is beginning to set in. President Crutcher sent an email tonight stating that there would be no graduation in May. I know this will sound selfish, but I am devastated. No celebration of our accomplishments and no date set for the future graduation that he implied. I had been looking forward to this my whole college career. My father, who is currently working outside of the United States, planned his travel around it. My grandparents from upstate New York were prepared to make the over 11 hour drive down to Richmond for commencement.
I cried for a long time. I FaceTimed all of my friends, unsure of when we would see each other again. My roommates from across the east coast and midwest: Kansas, Maryland and New Jersey. When would we see each other? Would we end up in the same cities post-graduation? What about the people that you would wave to when you would go to class? A mere passerby that I might never see again? I didn’t want everything to end so abruptly.
I hope we don’t have a virtual ceremony. That would be terrible. We will probably have our diplomas mailed. No graduation gown on Mother’s Day, something my mother was looking forward to. No dinner at Stella’s like we had planned. No tent party. No block party.
All of our lasts were taken away.