To the Class of 2020

I wake up, get out of bed and as I sip my coffee and read the newspaper, I am moved, it seems almost every day, to tears. Whether it is the story - so many stories - of the lives cut short by COVID-19 or, the story in today’s New York Times about a recent college graduate who interned with the British consulate and is now considering a job at Target. In my own family, there is Cameron, graduating (virtually) from Cambridge Rindge and Latin and Phoebe, a high school freshman who made the cheerleading team, but is bonding with her teammates over Zoom. (For the life of me, I haven’t figured out how a flyer who spins on the top of the pyramid practices those moves alone in the bedroom!)

Though the sacrifice of young people who have had to forego the camaraderie of the classroom and the celebrations that accompany important milestones seems less significant when compared to those who have suffered loss of life, the “bubble of anxiety” referenced by the young man in today’s New York Times story is not to be underestimated. For those of us who can, let us offer mentorship and hope.

My hope for these young people is that they seek out and find others upon whom they can rely, they endure these disruptions with a measure of grace, and they take solace in the fact that while some opportunities may be delayed, they will not be denied. We need their voices, their talents and and their knowledge. I like to think what lies ahead, not just in the job market, but within their own families is this. There will come a day when children and grandchildren of the generation who came of age in 2020 will look to them with admiration and, in describing them, will use words like grit, courage, determination and resilience.

So today, I lift a glass - OK, my coffee cup - to the next greatest generation!

I expressed these thoughts recently in a video chat to a communications class at Emerson College.