Listen to this letter in audio form. Be sure to open in a new tab, to read along. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nA Prelude:<\/strong> I love being a professor, at times I loathe being both a professor and an empath, and a trained counselor. I loathe it because I often pick up on things that many of my colleagues do not, or if they do, the intentionality of responding is not always there. I loathed seeing my students on virtual classes after our spring break. But mostly, I loathed seeing the removal of joy in my seniors. And as professors, we all did, I am sure. But at moments I would feel the depression they had, and their removal of excitement\u2014excitement that had been building and worked towards for seventeen years, and some change. It was gone\u2014almost. And I couldn\u2019t allow that. So I sat down to write this letter to you all. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nMy Dearest Class of 2020,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe reality is\u2026 these are moments you will remember. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSince childhood you\u2019ve thought about what college you would\nattend. What friends you would make. Wondering what you would major in. Places\nyou would go for breaks. The type of freedom you would feel away from home. And\nmost likely, you dreamed about what it would be like to walk across that stage,\nwith your cap and gown, in front of your families and friends. The moment you\nknew would represent seventeen years of schooling, seventeen years of homework,\nseventeen years of being tested, seventeen years of new friendships, broken\nfriendships, and forever friendships. Seventeen years of awesome teachers,\nteachers that did the best they could, teachers who changed your life, teachers\nyou would like to forget, and teachers you can\u2019t wait to tell, \u201cI did it!\u201d For\nmany of you, college has been a part of your future since you knew what a\nfuture was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well guess what, that future is now.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThose seventeen years of yearning are coming to a close.\nUnfortunately, your culminating moment comes in a time of crisis, of\nuncertainty, of quarantine, of social distancing in a time where social over-exaggeration\nis THE requirement, you are in a pandemic\u2014Covid-19. And this virus, that has no\nvaccine, or guaranteed cure, is out there removing your seventeen years of\naccumulated joy. And we have come to know that the only cure for this vaccine, is\nto have patience, perseverance, unknown health strength, and perhaps quite a\nbit of luck; <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Professorial last assignment to you, is CELEBRATE. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThat\u2019s right, I\u2019m assigning you more homework. You thought\nyou were finished. Well you\u2019re not. I reserve the right to alter the syllabus\nat any time (professor humor, I know you might not be laughing). This\nassignment is required, it is not extra credit. Because this is a moment you\nwill remember. I won\u2019t allow any incompletes, because This. Is. The. Moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know many universities are doing their best to prepare in-person\ngraduation celebrations for the class of 2020 in the future\u2014we still don\u2019t know\nwhat the future looks like\u2014so these celebrations (like the one at our\nuniversity) are slated for a year after your original graduation date. And this\nis wonderful, it really is, and I hope all of you get to participate in that\nmoment. But trust me, that moment, one year later, is not your Seventeen-Years\nmoment. It will be a great moment indeed, but not like the one you are in right\nnow. This pandemic-moment that you knocked out of your way to finalize those\nrequirements for your college degree, is your Seventeen-Years-and-a-Pandemic\nmoment. No one else has had a moment like this, and trust and believe no one\nhas had a final semester\/quarter of college like this. You are the novel\ngraduation class of 2020 (sorry perhaps I shouldn\u2019t use a pun so soon\u2026 but it is\nthe truth). You spent seventeen years (and some of you, seventeen and some\nchange, and you better know it doesn\u2019t matter, the degree does), reaching for\nthe same moment your friends from the class of 2019 had, your parents from the\nclass of (they won\u2019t tell you), because they showed you pictures or you joined\nin their pictures of their moment, and it was joyous. It was extreme social\nover-exaggeration, and they loved it and you yearned for one more year to get\nyours. Well, guess what, compared to their years, yours probably still feels\nlike\u2026 To Be Determined\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My assignment to you is to be determined to make your moment positively memorable. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nI remember my Seventeen-Years<\/strong> moment. I remember all of it. The good and the bad\u2014but my bad<\/em> came on suddenly with no warning, my bad<\/em> couldn\u2019t have been altered into an outlook of \u201cdamn, I finished those classes online, in quarantine, with uncertainty, and now I\u2019m getting that paper. King, Kong ain\u2019t got nothing on me,\u201d\u2014moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe reality is, I remember all of my graduations, high school, college, and graduate school. And the reality is, my moments were not so great. I did not always feel like some of the members of my family were there to cheer me on. At two of those graduations there were moments they proved my worries were right. I could tell you the torrid details of those moments, because guess what they are memorable, even more so, because they were in my Seventeen-Years-type<\/strong> of moments. But I won\u2019t. I will tell you what I know to be true because of those sad memories. <\/p>\n\n\n\nI remember my joy before the unfortunate moments. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nI remember my walk from the Arts quad, behind the Pan African flag with my friends to the field, where they told us to stand and move our tassel from one side to the other and we were thus graduated. I remember who I sat next to. I remember the people I greeted for the very last time ever. I remember trying so hard to find my best friends, but our Seventeen-Years <\/strong>moments were happening at the very same time and their Seventeen-Years<\/strong> moment cheerleaders socially overexaggerated around them. And I got pictures with each of them separately. But the day before we got one good picture before the amazing storms of celebration and joy that descended on our campus on the hill. I remember moments like this for my doctoral graduation as well, different type of level, different type of joy, but good memories. And for me, to still remember the great in those moments, when the bad still makes me wish for a do-over, means you can make your Seventeen-Years<\/strong> moment count too. And guess what, you already know what the worst aspect of it will be\u2014all things covid-19. <\/p>\n\n\n\nI wanted a do-over of my moments, and there will never be\none. I could attempt to put on my cap and gown today and walk across that\nstage, but all the energy that led up to when I earned my degrees, are no\nlonger tingling and itching to get out. I worry that a year from now, my\ngraduating students will no longer have that tingling and that itching, and\nwalking across that stage will simply be protocol. And the reality is, the\nclass of 2020 is beyond protocol. So, despite the reality that we must\nquarantine in your Seventeen-Years moment, be creative and celebrate like you\nnever would have thought before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are all virtual now. That teacher from the 5th<\/sup>\ngrade that told you how great you were at math, and gave you the confidence to\nfall in love with numbers and equations, can be at your virtual celebration.\nThe professor that made you realize that you wanted to study something that you\nwere excited about, can be there. Your grandparent who can\u2019t travel anymore,\ncan be there. Your friends from all over can pop in to say congratulations at\nany time. People you met on your study abroad to Ghana can be a witness too. So\nbe creative. <\/p>\n\n\n\nI spoke about that tingling and itching you have right now\nto be finished with school, to have your university bequeath that you have met\nthe requirements for your degree, and I wish to speak about it again. Don\u2019t let\ngo of it, not quite yet. Don\u2019t let your worries about the world delete this\nfeeling. Not until you\u2019ve done the things that you always thought you\u2019d be\ndoing in celebration of this Seventeen-Years moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019d like to share a story about one of you seniors. A senior told me she hadn\u2019t taken any senior pictures. When I asked her for a picture to put up for our department\u2019s virtual graduation celebration to recognize her, she felt she was falling short. She felt like, her picture she sent was not good enough for her graduation recognition moment. And that was an honest feeling. And I reminded her, this is the moment you have been waiting for, for a long time. She, like me is first generation, and she spoke about how her entire family was looking forward to her moment, because as many of us First Gens know, our success is a collective success. She was still living on campus while taking virtual classes, and I told her to go take her senior pictures. That\u2019s right. I told her go get dressed up, and capture some memories. I suggested she ask one of her classmates in my course to help her\u2014I knew just the right person with just the right amount of positivity in this uncertain time to make her senior pictures moment fun. And I told her, \u201cno one is on campus, and no one will be looking at you funny as you pose\u2014however you wish to pose.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She took those pictures. She told me thank you. She told me\nher family was so excited to see her senior photos. She said it felt like she\nfinally had a sense of closure on campus. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m glad I gave her an assignment. I\u2019m glad she embraced it.\nBecause now I am embracing my role to share with the class of 2020, that this\nmoment is memorable, and it will be remembered. How do you wish to remember it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Assignment\nTitle: Class of Covid-19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAssignment Prompt:<\/strong> You are the class of 2020, and in\na decade or so you will probably be referred to as the Class of Covid-19. I\nhope you will embrace it, as it reiterates how amazing you truly are. But it is\nnot yet a decade from now. For my students, May 17, 2020 was the date you were\nto participate in the official commencement ceremony on our campus. As of March\n23, 2020, you found out that in-person commencement was postponed, and it will\nbe held one year from now. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe first part<\/strong> of this assignment is to respond to\nthe following questions: <\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat\nwere you most looking forward to for commencement?<\/li> What\nthings did you plan to do prior to commencement in preparation for it? (ex: buy\na new outfit, get a fresh haircut, figure out how your hair would fit under\nthat cap, buy a pair of shoes that your family could see from the stands,\ndecorate your cap, send thank you cards to family, friends, professors, remind\nyour family to purchase the cake that says \u201cyou did it!\u201d, take senior pictures,\ngrab a meal with your closest friends, send out invitations, look at yourself\nin the mirror and say \u201cI made it.\u201d)<\/li> What\nthings did you plan to do after your commencement ceremony? (ex: go out to\ndinner with family, have dessert, go to a party with friends, pack up all your\nstuff to move out, take pictures with your family, friends, and favorite\nprofessors, bask in the joy, shed a few tears at the bitter sweet, try not to\nworry about what\u2019s next, experience the now.)<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\nSecondly,<\/strong> now that you have responded to these\nquestions, highlight the things you STILL CAN DO. Remember be creative. Enlist\nyour family and friends for help. Brainstorm. Use all of those critical\nthinking skills you gained in your college career, and after seventeen years of\nhomework, don\u2019t let this one be late. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCongratulations to the unique, novel, resilient, determined,\nunapologetically celebratory, college class of 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sincerely, <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nProfessor Brackett<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nP.S.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAs a professor of African American studies, as a first\ngeneration student, as an African American woman, who never knew she\u2019d be where\nshe is today, as the graduate who worried about how her family would be able to\nafford the trip from Virginia to New York and later Michigan, as the sometimes\nthree-job-having college student who worried how to afford my cap and gown, my\nnew dress, my hair style, and the gas to drive myself back to Virginia, as the\ngranddaughter of a grandparent who was incapable of walking from the stadium to\nnorth campus, as the black girl with a middle name she worried wouldn\u2019t be\npronounced correctly, as the First Gen who knew she would have to translate all\nthe college speak for her family, as the dream and the hope of the slave, as\nthe code switcher, as the girl who would tell people she graduated with honors\nfrom Cornell University and would often receive tones of congratulations that\nhave the sound of surprise\u2026 It would be disrespectful of me to close out this\nletter without speaking for those often unheard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I see you. I know that your future narratives from childhood\ndon\u2019t always look like what our society tells us it should. Your families may\nnever have spoken about college. You may not have a family. Your seventeen\nyears of schooling may not have looked like what our society defines as\naverage, and this often means you are above average, but no one ever told you\nthat. They told you something was wrong with you, they told you graduating from\ncollege probably wouldn\u2019t happen. They said you would never make it. But you\ndid. And this is why I get a tingling when I see you all, those often unseen,\nwalk to commencement through our line of cheers as your proud professors. I get\noverly excited to see your joy. Your moment is most precious to me. So precious\nthat I gladly wear my regalia each year, hat included, and sit as they read\nyour names, and stay on campus until the tent of refreshments has no one left\nto refresh. I\u2019m happy to hold the camera and get many photos of your entire\ncrew in one image, or I\u2019ll keep pushing the button until you captured the\nperfect graduation picture for all of your social media accounts. Because you\nwon\u2019t get this moment back. Because I know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You are probably more likely qualified to survive this\npandemic because your lives were required to have patience, perseverance,\nunknown health strength and some luck. Many of you ask yourself from time to\ntime, why me? Why am I the one that got out? Why am I the one that made it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I worry about whether you will be able to return to campus a\nyear from now to participate in the commencement ceremony set to replace the\none you are missing this month. I worry that your family can\u2019t or won\u2019t make\nit. I worry you will not want to return to a campus, a place, that you spent\nfour years and maybe some change at, and still felt unheard and unseen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please for the often unheard, and often unseen, read between the lines, because I write this especially with us in mind. This is your Seventeen-Years<\/strong> moment, with seventeen years worth of doubts from others and yourself, and you made it. You made it. So celebrate it. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd it is you that made me say, I must write this. You won\u2019t get this moment back. And you will always remember it. So make your Seventeen-Years <\/strong>moment positively memorable. <\/p>\n\n\n\nP.S.S.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nHere\u2019s a link to a celebration that showcases: This is how\nwe do it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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