“A lot of people are feeling like they are owed a graduation...the ultimate goodbye [and] the final bridge from high school to college,” shares high school senior Anthony Vitale in an article for USA Today.

While many high school graduates are disappointed by the postponement or complete cancelation of any graduation ceremony, their parents are often the ones who feel this loss keenly.

You may look back on your high school graduation as a precious memory or the end of an era. The idea of what life would be like if you were not able to experience graduation is heartbreaking. Does your high school graduate feel the same way?

Simply put, maybe. Maybe your graduate feels this loss in the same way you do, but maybe she feels indifferent or only slightly disappointed. Each graduate is handling the loss of the end of these high school years differently.

Regardless of how your high school graduate feels, this experience may be the best thing to happen to her. This odd high school graduation can teach her 3 important lessons!

Lesson #1: The reward can be long in coming.

While the destination—graduation—can help motivate your child to finish the year well, graduation isn’t the end. Life keeps moving after graduation, even for an eighteen year old.

As your freshman enters adulthood, she needs to adjust to working toward long-term wins, not merely short wins. Four years of high school feels like forever to your child, but you know these years quickly come and go.

In order for your high school graduate to experience lasting personal and career success, she needs to learn that achieving big goals takes years and years to achieve. This lesson won’t be learned overnight, but having a delay or change in her high school graduation plans can help move her along the path of working toward long-term goals.

Lesson #2: Everyday school experiences are special.

As someone who taught high school students, I can attest to the tendency of high school seniors to be restless. They want to be done with school, be done with the rules, be done with the annoying people, etc. As a result, they tend toward complaining more than other high school students.

Your child may be the exception, but regardless of whether she tends to be a complainer she is realizing now (maybe for the first time) how wonderful it was to participate in normal school life. School was not as bad as she often felt it was. In fact, she probably even reluctantly admits to missing going to classes in-person.

Sport practices, band rehearsals, and her least favorite class were not as bad as she maybe once thought. Looking back, she’s seeing she had a lot for which she could be grateful.

Lesson #3: College cannot come soon enough.

Your high school graduate is likely more excited about college beginning than many freshmen have been in the past. Why? College symbolizes a return to normal (well a new normal).

While the transition to college will be difficult, your high school grad looks forward to experiencing classes in-person. The possibility of life still continuing like she’d hope helps her get through the disappointment of a weird graduation.

Graduation is weird this year, but that doesn’t mean that it has to be something regretted or wasted on your high school graduate. Your child can redirect her focus from disappointment to opportunity for growth and time to prepare for the exciting college years ahead!