Graduating During Covid

I was finishing my freshman year of school when Covid started and now I'm graduating and Covid is still here. It will be considering it as a classmate of mine since it's stuck with me longer than some friends I make in school. Everyone comes to this school with a dream but only some will archive it and some learn something about themselves. Graduating doesn't mean you finished climbing Everest, it just means you bought an airplane ticket to Everest. For me, this is the beginning of the journey to the top.

I hate Covid, it takes away my school, my graduation ceremony, my potential friends, and most important the memory that I could have made. I could be throwing my cap on my graduation, going out for food after class with classmates, helping the teacher clean up equipment, but time passed and here I am only remembering about-faces on the screen. I often wonder how life could have been if Covid wasn't a thing. In the end, Covid has permanently changed me as a person and I love that person. I was an introvert, my social anxiety make me tired after every interaction with any human. I was also a perfectionist, I would be depressed if my work doesn't look good enough, I will be scared to try new things because I don't like to fail. The pandemic forces me to stay home and be in my head, quarantine gives me time to take a break from people. Covid is gentle to me, it gives me time to let go of my obsession with perfection, and now I found what I want to do and I love it, I got to try new things, learn new things and fail as much as I can( well not that much if I want a job). I also make some friend/classmate that stick with me during covid, isolation create less opportunity but a stronger bond. This sounds like "a thank you letter to covid" but Covis is just an excuse for me to take things slower to navigate my life. The reason I'm making it here today is my friends, my classmate, my teachers, and my mentors. Everyone in their own way makes this as meaningful for me as possible. And I started to see a future with everyone, what we could do, how much fun we can all have and the person I didn't think I could become. It makes me exciting for the future now that I have become an Alumni of Los Angeles Film School.?