Class of 2020, Here are 5 Truths We Need to Push Past the COVID-19 Cloud

Past the “get over it”s and “it can’t be helped”s, those of us in the Class of 2020 who took out loans, moved miles away from home, or just wanted to accomplish a milestone turn a brand new page have found ourselves stuck in the COVID Cloud.

Along with mourning the loss of our senior year, we’re dazed and confused as to what our next step is supposed to look like. And every day our news sources are reflecting more shifts that are clouding our visions for what was supposed to be the start to the rest of our lives.

Of course, in true Gen-Z fashion, we’re all coping with memes and videos to help us laugh away the tears.

Still, nothing is going to be the same for any of us. COVID-19 has completely upended all our plans (our already innocent, probably shoddy, overly-optimistic plans).

All the world is hurting. And we’re still the lucky ones if that’s all it’s taken so far. So if we’re still here, then our lives will go on, plans changed or not.

If you’re like me, you’re probably coming to this same resolution too after weeks of denial in a quarantine coma. And it was the realization that these 5 truths that I know my fellow peers in the Class of 2020 need to hear to help get us through to the other side this cloud.

1. Whatever your plans were, they're not ready for the “New Normal”. Take this time to reevaluate.

The term “new normal” is being used to describe whatever it is we’ll be returning to when the quarantines are lifted. And they’re calling it that because no matter what, it’s not going to be the same normal life we had planned for.

I had my heart set on moving from my small-town college in Virginia to big and beautiful New York City after I graduated. It’d always been my dream, and despite all odds, I was so close.

But after weeks of denial, I had finally faced that I had to start formulating a plan B. If just that thought stresses you out (like it did for me) find comfort knowing that literally everyone else is in the same boat.

We’re all trying to figure out what our plans will look like in the “new normal”, and in the process, reevaluating them.

Maybe these few weeks have made you rethink taking that job you were on the fence about or made you reassess your career path and want to turn in the opposite direction. Maybe this is what you needed to treasure every day and do the things you always assumed you had time for in the future. For me, it’s latter — hence why I’m finally writing again.

In the midst of reevaluating, also take pride that, though you may not have the graduation ceremony, you don’t have to miss out on all it represents.

“A big part of graduating is patting yourself on the back and having other people pat you on the back.” — Nicole Ellis, The Washington Post

Whatever place you’re in, take this time to realize that graduation or not, plan B or not, you’ve accomplished something great, and no virus could ever take that away from you.

And hey, the world’s not standing still. All you need to start building up your new plan can be found by taking your search to the screen.

2. When one door closes, another opens. And right now, those doors are digital.

Something that’s standing out to me more and more in this time is how quarantine has seemingly brought us closer than we’ve ever been before.

People are maintaining and improving social connections in quarantine now more than ever. We’re calling our parents more often, tuning into live streams all across the globe, and even reaching out to coworkers for digital dance parties after work.

If there’s one thing us graduates have drilled in our heads by now, it’s that networking changes everything. The job market isn’t looking too hot right now, and though that should make us anxious, the advice I’m seeing repeated by those gone before us (i.e. professionals in the industry) is that networking opportunities are the #1 thing we should be taking advantage of in this time.

We’re all stuck inside, yet never before has it been easier to reach out to those who before would have been out of your reach. With brands like Google, Microsoft, Zoom, and even Discord stepping up to facilitate more online connections, getting to talk face to face with professionals is no longer just a game of climbing the ladder.

Take the advertising industry. Industry leaders are popping up left and right offering mentorship and teaching opportunities and even portfolio reviews that before would have been a rare instance.

Plus, we’ll be in the aftermath of what would be the world's largest shared experience! (Finally, something new to add to our repertoire of small-talk, right alongside the weather and our latest Netflix binge.)

Instead of dwelling on all the negatives and things you’ve missed out on, remember, we’ve never lived in a time like this before. And that means there are opportunities to be grabbed now that can completely change your life in ways you never expected.

And that brings us to the next thing.

3. Your life’s bound to take unexpected turns. What better time than now to learn to navigate them?

There’s a saying that goes, “If you want to make God laugh, show him your plans for your life.” If Corona is making anything clear to us, it’s that we have even less control of things here on Earth than we ever thought.

We’re graduates, and that means we’ve spent our entire life looking toward the future with rose-colored glasses. And this is great because that’s the kind of hope and confidence you need to achieve your internal and external dreams.

But as I reside in the space between dreaming and achieving, never before has it been more real to me that the world’s a tough place to survive and find joy at the same time. And often it’s years until we find out the paths that we thought were going to be traveling on were not the ones we expected at all.

That honestly terrifies me and so many other us as we begin the part of our lives without a required syllabus.

But it’s stories like Derek Blasbery’s, Head of YouTube Fashion, who even after he was fired from his first job and had to work his way up in the fashion industry, said,

“If you play it right, your worse career move can be your best opportunity.” — Derek Blasbery, Head of Youtube Fashion

Change is scary, especially when it’s not in our control. But nothing ever gets any better without it. As someone who takes comfort in actually answering, “What’s the worst that could happen?”, I’d say one thing we should take with us is our resilience in the face of the unexpected.

So, though on the outside things may not go according to the plan, your progress within will always remain. And there’s only one person who can control that.

4. The only thing you can really control is yourself. Good, because that’s who you’re stuck with.

After just coming off years of always being evaluated by others' perception of progress, times like these are really tough on our sense of self-worth. This quarantine is causing us to face things that our everyday lives have kept hidden. And I’d say we should take this time we wouldn't have had before to really face the people we want to be in the world.

We live in an age where comparing ourselves has never been easier or more destructive. But guess what? Never before has the playing field between you and everyone else been this leveled.

Even celebrities with huge followings and lives that seemed larger than life are just at home like the rest of us.

Recenter yourself and take this time to ask yourself these questions.

When you strip away all the social constructs, who is that you’re really want to be? What is the role you play in your own life? Where will your happiness come from when the outside world can’t give it to you?

After you’ve answered those questions, here’s the last thing.

5. This is your chance to think about the change you want to see in the world.

Though this quarantine is giving us a chance to recenter ourselves, we still will be returning to a world where we all play a part in rebuilding it. We may have joked before about needing to push the “Reset” button in our lives, but this really is it.

We are the generation that’s going out there shaping the world. More than picking up a new hobby or filling the days with distractions, lay the foundation for the difference you want to make. And when the world starts to rebuild itself, decide what part will you play in building it better.

None of us know what the world’s going to look like when we get through this thing. But of two things I am certain — we will get through this thing, and it will look different.

The only way we will all thrive then is if we look different too.