Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
The defining national/international event for the infamous baby boomer generation was the Vietnam War. It was America’s longest war at the time, with combat fueled by soldier boys ages 18 and up.
About 58,000 Americans died over our eight-year involvement in that war, but as terrible a death toll as that was, it has been eclipsed in less than three months by the COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak has taken more than 100,000 American lives and climbing — and it’s hitting the boomers (as well as the “silent generation” whose defining moment was the Korean War) the hardest.
Physically, that is. Psychologically, it’s hitting this year’s high school graduates like no other.
Put yourself in a 2020 grad’s place: There you were, happily absorbed in the glories of your senior year, enjoying the perks that come with the closing days of your last year in high school, with plans to go either to college or to work in the months to follow your graduation.
There’s a whole lot of political noise out there, but there were also plenty of jobs available in a booming economy, so at least for the immediate future you have a reason to feel good about where you’re going.
Then, suddenly, it all comes crashing down.
First, the schools close. There’s a virus out there, the grownups are telling you, and while you’d previously heard them saying it’s no worse than the flu, they’re now saying you could give it to your grandma without even knowing you have it, and it could kill her.
You’d better practice “social distancing,” they’re now being told, or you could become a killer carrier.
Then come the cancellations, including the pomp and ceremony that was going to surround your high school graduation. It’s now being substituted with drive-by parades and socially distanced immediate-family-only graduations — and you’re expected to accept it because, well, it’s the right thing to do.
So you accept the fact that your high school years are now behind you and uncertainty lies ahead, and somehow you must figure out your own uncertain future.
I thought about their plight as I worked my way through a stack of surveys my newspaper, the Guadalupe County Communicator, asked Santa Rosa and Vaughn high school graduates to fill out, for inclusion in our annual graduation section. In it, we asked these seniors for their thoughts on the coronavirus pandemic, and nearly all of them had something thought-provoking to say.
Mostly, they expressed a mixture of alarm and optimism. Many of them said it’s a lesson in how easily things can come undone, and many of them recognize it as their generation’s defining moment.
Santa Rosa’s valedictorian, Jordan Sanchez, said her class is being “forged by fire: born during 9/11 and graduating during a global pandemic.”
She goes on to speak of a destiny “to do something bigger” in this world they are inheriting.
“I don’t want our class to be remembered by this event nor define ourselves by what we lost out on,” she continued, “however, I do believe these circumstances give us all the motivation to make our futures that much more impactful.”
Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:
