To my fellow graduates

Last week I found myself sat in my childhood bedroom searching the internet for a knock off cap and gown to get for my now online graduation ceremony. A situation I could have never imagined only a few short months ago. Somehow, I was back reading the email sent from my university to reconfirm that indeed my graduation will not be taking place. A small grain of hope that maybe it was just a dream, maybe there was no email at all, maybe a chance of another email to say yes there will be a graduation. Yet, I sat there re-reading what I already knew and again a pain resonated in my heart.

The ceremony itself being cancelled is not what hurts the most but instead what I and my fellow graduates are feeling everyday waking up since March of this year. The dreading feeling of ‘what’s next?’

You go back through the motions. The anti-climax in the cheer you gave in your room or at the kitchen table as you submitted your last assignment or exam.

The feeling of completing a four-year degree but not being able to celebrate with your classmates, housemates, other students, and staff of your university was strange to say the least.

The sense of putting so much work into your studies and for what to graduate with no job, to live with your parents, to feel extremely inadequate. Finishing college is supposed to be a momentous moment.

The door of new possibilities opening that inch further. Starting a new job, moving to a different country or county all very exciting and fresh. However, for myself and my fellow graduates a lot of the stimulating possibilities and life steps have been taken away from us or put on pause.

I have seen a lot of positive pieces for graduates, that is uplifting, reading something optimistic and motivating is helpful. I have also read how people who graduate when times are bad will in the future make less money compared to those who graduate when times are good. It is hard to know what to believe.

There have been so many unprecedented events since the start of this year. I feel as though I am watching what can will go wrong world edition. Longing for the day when I can sit at the bar with some friends as we giggle and say, ‘remember the year 2020 what even was that’.

However, this seems like a very distant possibility. The reality of the situation can be difficult to comprehend. I have been leaving it hang there in a closet at the back of the mind which feels better than thinking about the consequences.

For many of my fellow graduates the last few months have been so challenging. Yes, we watched in the comfort of our homes as the world shut down. We have seen amazing frontline workers putting their lives at risks for the protection of the masses. This I am in awe of.

We even saw the Leaving Cert cancelled. Who would have thought that an education system built upon a competitive, unfair points scheme monitored by one set of final exams could be changed?

But somewhere along the way the Government deemed it completely acceptable to allow all university exams to go ahead and to be marked with ‘thoughtful consideration’ rather than capping student’s grades and not put further pressure upon students to perform to university standards without so many resources and with the fear of a pandemic happening around them.

I saw little credit was given to students who have not only pushed themselves in unimaginable times but also had to deal with so much uncertainty of their future.

I am so lucky for the prospects I have been given. The opportunities include a third level education. Two of the semesters I got to spend abroad. I met so many wonderful and unique individuals.

I have had so many amazing teachers, mentors, lectures throughout my time in education. I spent many late nights in the library fuelled by caffeine to complete readings or assignments. I got to learn new perspectives and ways of thinking. I wrote a final year project that I am beyond proud of.

I am a young woman with a university degree in Ireland a country that in the last five years has legalised gay marriage, repealed the eighth amendment and for the first time ever we have seen the two major parties challenged because of our vote.

The vote of young people.

There is so much change that still needs to happen but being able to know and fight for it is something I am honoured to be a part of. I am so grateful for the prospects I have been given. What is clear is that this was not to complain about my privilege but to simply explain the emotions inside many of us that have been so tough to express.

To the class of 2020 I wish you the best of luck and congratulations for finishing your degree in a time that no one could have foreseen. May this moment not define you but allow you to grow and achieve success in whatever pathway you pursue.