At What Cost To Our Kids?
One of the hardest things to replace are our memories. Whether good or bad ones, we carry them with us our entire lives. They become part of us. They help shape who we are and who we become.
Indulge me while I take a moment to channel my inner Al Bundy, but some of my fondest memories are the ones from my youth and high school sports days. It wasn't the games or the practices as much as it was my teammates and playing the games with them and practicing with them.
To a much lesser degree, I understand what kids are dealing with right now. As a senior in high school, we had our prom taken away from us due to a measles outbreak. Everyone was quarantined, but it was short lived and only affected our prom. Our kids now are paying a much heavier price. For our seniors, this is the ultimate sacrifice because it's their "LAST" everything in high school. They've had their prom taken away, their sports taken away and now, possibly their graduation taken away.
Monday night the Bismarck Public School Board discussed what graduation may look like with the current Covid 19 situation and hopes to make a decision sometime this week. If graduation is cancelled, the celebration of one of our kids' biggest lifetime achievements will have been taken away, along with a lifetime of memories.
Think back to your senior year and how special that was. All of the time that you spent with your friends, the special events, even if you couldn't get out of high school fast enough, these are all experiences and memories that our kids can never replace and truly need.
I'm curious to find out what you think. Should graduations take place in any way possible or should they just be cancelled and move on?