Dresses, bobbles, jewels, and beads everywhere. Glitter, golden tassels, and the traditional caps and gowns flood the streets, great halls, neighborhoods, and arena stages all around the country. Photographers are taking the senior pictures and graduation videos all over the place. It’s exciting!! It’s prom season and all-over the country, young people are getting dressed up to celebrate a “rite of passage” as they strike a pose and post “Tik Tok” videos and Instagram posts to document the promenade of gowns, suits, tuxedoes and glitter for the memories and the public proclamations that “They have arrived!”
Coupled with the enthusiasm for these monumental moments is the fact that the entire nation is slowly emerging from a 2- and a half year, almost 3-years long, global pandemic that had us all huddled up in our houses or with our personal inner circle of friends and family for months on end. We’ve all had to deal with virtual classes, virtual meetings, virtual family gatherings, online shopping, and delivery services for fear of catching or spreading a deadly virus. It truly has been a challenging and uncertain time for the entire country. These traditional celebrations have been altered in most cases and in some cases canceled completely over the past few years. In many cases we did what we could on ZOOM with virtual dances, graduation ceremonies, and virtual celebrations of all kinds; this is the first year that we’re going to be celebrating LIVE and in-person once again.
It’s that time of the year when colleges and universities will be celebrating their newest graduates with certificates, diplomas, and degrees from bachelors, to masters, to doctorates and beyond. A new class of medical professionals, nurses and doctors will begin their careers and be celebrated by their partners, families, and friends. It’s that time of year! The spirit of celebration can be shared out in the open this year and we can all breath a collective sigh of relief to be able once again to have a collective and communal experience. Although, it is a wonderful relief to be together in-person, and we all get a visceral feeling of joy to greet those we have not seen for months and years once more, let us all remember that COVID is still a threat and has not gone away. We must take precautions as we venture out again and attempt to be “normal” once more.
Each year at this time always brings a little anxiety with it as we come and go from many multiple well-deserved celebrations of our accomplishments and hard work. Overindulgence with beverages and other mind and body altering enhancements make people careless as they get into cars and motor vehicles impaired. Drunk and/or impaired driving causes tragic accidents every year in a season that is supposed to be nothing but celebratory. This year losing anyone due to carelessness and excessive drinking or use of either synthetic or
natural enhancements would be doubly tragic after surviving the COVID -19 pandemic where our nation has lost over 992,000 souls to the virus. It is certain that before the years’ end, the United States will have lost 1 million people to the global pandemic that has not yet
been contained or conquered. Remember that as you celebrate in this season.
Take care and use discernment in how you party and celebrate. You want to be mindful of where you celebrate, who you celebrate with, and how you celebrate. Remember the rest of your life depends on it!
It’s the season to celebrate! Make sure you are here to be at next year’s celebration too!
