You had no idea the school year would end this way. When you began your senior year, you likely looked forward to senior memories you would make. The coronavirus seemed to deprive you of these memories.

While your graduation seems more like a reason to feel disappointed than to celebrate, this graduation is still something special. Don’t let the weirdness of this coronavirus semester trick you into thinking this graduation is a waste or a missed opportunity.

Below are 3 ways that your COVID-19 graduation prepares you for your future!

High school graduation foreshadows the start of something new.

Focusing on all you’ve missed out on or all you’re currently missing out on, you can focus instead on what the end of high school opens the door to. As disappointing as the end of this year has been, you have much more exciting things to come.

Being a student bound for college, you have many exciting experiences to come. While these new adventures can be scary, they are exciting new steps you get to take. Living in the dorms, making college friends, and more await you in the months to come!

High school graduation helps you look forward to future milestones.

Completing high school is something worth celebrating! But as exciting as it is to celebrate finishing four years of high school, imagine how much more exciting it will be to celebrate finishing a college degree.

Think about how much you’ve grown as a person since your freshman year of high school. Just imagine how much you’ll grow as a person in college! 

Not having the chance to celebrate your high school graduation like you would like is more than disappointing, but this lack of a celebration can help you look forward to the celebration you’ll have after completing your college degree.

High school graduation adjusts you to adulthood.

Some high school grads don’t want to celebrate this graduation virtually. Why? Maybe they feel like they’re being fake. Maybe they feel like they’re being forced to celebrate. Maybe they feel like this graduation is more for their parents.

Whatever the reason, they don’t want to celebrate this graduation. You might not relate to this feeling at all, but that doesn’t mean you don’t feel odd celebrating.

As a young adult, you’ll soon find that there are less celebrations for milestones. Instead of celebrating events, you’ll celebrate more everyday achievements—presenting an effective presentation, completing a project, etc.

As weird as this graduation is, it prepares you for celebrating the notable achievements in small ways. These achievements are still important but may not get as much fanfare.

This graduation prepares you more for college than you realized. It marks more of a start than a finish, it foreshadows milestones to come, and it adjusts you to celebrating achievements as an adult. This graduation may be a slight let-down but it’s not a waste!