It has been a few weeks, dear friends. End of school year is always a crazy time for families and ours is no exception. In the days of elementary school, it was field days, awards, and bringing a big bag to clean our their desks. In the middle school days, it was dances, class picnics, and even bigger bags to clean out their lockers. In high school, it used to be proms, ditch days, and packing in all of your family and friends for graduation and subsequent graduation parties.

And then COVID happened.

Just like that, end of the high school year meant a planned compromise to prom (if you’re lucky) with scheduled times to be there and no dancing allowed like the town in “Footloose” except this time, it’s about a communicable disease. The end of the school year is about limited people at graduation and no large gatherings allowed. The end of the school year is about being remote for the last two weeks so there is no risk of having to be quarantined on graduation day (at least not coming from the school). It’s an interesting time, for sure and it even looks different from last year in the midst of COVID.

My kiddo and I had a very candid conversation about it. I told him that I’m sad he doesn’t really get to experience these things and his response was essentially that he was too but it’s not the end of the world. We talked about how this high school experience is just a piece of a far bigger puzzles and there will be other opportunities to dance together, have a party, and do all of the other fun things. Sure, they won’t be in your senior year of high school, but life is about adaptation and you will have a great story to tell your kids someday.

So to all of the seniors who might not be getting a prom or a graduation party, and to all of the parents of those seniors that are bummed too, remember this: It’s not the ending; its just the beginning. Once things have calmed down, we can have a party and now we have time to plan for it more. We might not be able to have grandma at graduation but we can have grandma over for dinner and she can have one on one time she might not have gotten at a graduation party anyway. This is a season of adapting to what the circumstances are and it’s really a great opportunity to teach our kids all about how to do this moving forward in life. It’s a great opportunity for them to learn that when an obstacle pops up, you can either sit behind it puzzled or you can get creative and make a way around it.

So congratulations to the class of 2021 and to the parents that made it through. You did it. You survived everything from birthday treats at school in a peanut free zone to no tolerance policies that end up punishing the victim for fighting back in middle school (a whole different discussion for a different day) to planning something special for your graduate in the midst of pandemic precautions. Give yourself a hug and a high five because you’ve adapted and you are meant for amazing things, just like your kiddo.