Today, Georgia’s governor declared that schools will not reopen before the end of this semester. Our district’s semester is scheduled to end on May 22nd. Graduation was supposed to begin that afternoon at 4pm cycling through two of our county’s schools. On May 23rd, the other three high schools were set to walk across the stage. My daughter’s High School’s ceremony was set to start at Noon. I was still holding on to hope that we would reopen our schools and life would go back to normal…and that these kids would get to do allllll of the things Senior kids in high school do before life reached up and smacked them down.

I was 10 weeks pregnant with Sarah when the planes hit the Twin Towers and our world stood still. We were living on Charleston AFB and our lives changed forever. When I was 12 weeks pregnant, Chip was notified in the morning that he would be deploying and by 5pm that evening he was gone. In the chaos and stress of it all, I decided it was a great time to count and roll our loose change. Hunter, who had just turned two on September 19th, put a penny in his mouth and swallowed it. We had to take him to the base clinic to be x-rayed to make sure it had not lodged in his throat. As we were waiting for the x-ray, small talk was made about what was happening (Chip leaving sometime soon) and the fact that we had had a miscarriage at 12 weeks earlier in the year. They found a doppler in the building and ran it across my belly. We were able to hear a very strong heartbeat!!

Sarah Elizabeth arrived on March 21, 2002. Chip was in the field and was not able to be there for her birth, but he did get to meet her about 24 hours later.

In the blink of an eye, she began her Senior year of high school! All full of hope and looking forward to college. She had been saying forever that she wanted to be a teacher, but after Andrew’s surgery, she decided that she wanted to become a pediatric nurse. She was taking AP Biology and some Honors classes. She worked so hard to get cords for Early Childhood Development and Spanish. She has been keeping her grades up, striving so hard for the A’s that seemed just outside her reach in earlier years.

Then Corona hit. They still attended school. They came home on Friday, March 13th and have not been back since. She was ok with it. She turned 18 without her friends, she was ok with that. Then the Governor announced that schools would be closed at least until April 24th. She cried. SOBBED. That moment it suddenly became too much. “It’s not fair!” No, baby girl. It is so not fair.

She was supposed to have her braces removed on April 22nd. She wanted to have her “for real” Senior portraits made WITHOUT the braces (that’s why this picture has the copyright mark on it, we were going to get new ones). She wanted a sign in our yard showing that a 2020 graduate lives here. Who knows when..or IF…she will ever get these things.

All of these little “wants” from a sweet, sassy girl with a big heart who never, ever asks for ANYTHING. I have watched her with pride and amazement as she has overcome every disappointment. I can’t wait to see her SOAR!

I know, and she knows, that not being able to walk for Graduation is not the end of the world. It still stings a little to know that her time to shine may just end with the second she walked out of school on March 13th.

Dear High School Seniors of 2020,

YOU HAVE GOT THIS!! You will do glorious things. You were meant to succeed no matter what life throws at you. Keep the faith, keep smiling, keep dancing!

We love you more than you will ever know!!