How To Celebrate Your Graduate During Quarantine
GRETCHEN GALES
2020 sounds like the coolest graduation year to ever exist, yet as many seniors found out, the circumstances are not cool at all. Everyone is feeling anxious by recent world events, but for this year’s graduating class, it’s a major bummer. It’s hard for both a child and a parent to miss out on this kind of moment.
Even so, there are still ways to make the most out of hard times and celebrate. If you’re looking to make your child’s senior year as special as possible, look ahead for some tips to highlight their moment even during quarantine.
Create Their Own Personal Yearbook
While the official yearbook may remember your child and their friends as award-winning scholars and star athletes, what is most important are the unique memories they’ve built and cherished throughout the years with their friends. So why not encourage them to make their own yearbook?
Encourage them to use meaningful photos from their phone camera roll or social media accounts to create the story of their senior year. Have them designate their own lighthearted “senior superlatives” to friends, like “Best Laugh,” “Most Likely to Fall Asleep in Class,” and “Hungriest Friend.” In place of normal senior pictures, have your graduate use their favorite photos of their friends.
If you have scrapbook supplies on hand, they can handcraft their book. If supplies aren’t readily available or your child is more tech-savvy, websites like Shutterfly, Blurb, and Mixbook can help them put together a photo book. You can even make one of your favorite memories together for them to look back on in their adult lives.
They will remember how you handled everything that’s going on in the world today, and they’ll never forget the effort you made to make their senior year special.
Simulate Senior Milestone Moments
Many graduation ceremonies are postponed or entirely canceled alongside other once in a lifetime celebrations, but that doesn’t mean your graduate can’t have one on their own terms (or have you surprise them with one).
One major event that many will miss out on is prom. While your student may not have had the chance to pick out their dress or tux, it doesn’t mean that they can’t celebrate from home. Have them coordinate a virtual prom with their closest friends. Have them vote together on a theme, the music, what kinds of decorations to make. Encourage them to find an outfit from their closet that makes them feel fancy. Pretend you’re their hairdresser or makeup artist and help them pull together a look that makes them feel special.
Set up a virtual meeting with their friends to chat and dance the night away. If you’re feeling extra creative, come up with fun recipes for snacks and punch that fit their theme and have them readily available in the kitchen.
If virtual events don’t cut it, have them get together with friends via a video conference and plan a make up event to celebrate later on when things are a little more normal again. It will give them a chance for face-to-face interaction as well as give them something about their circumstances to control.
Show Some Pride
Break out the celebratory decorations—if you didn’t get the chance to order some before quarantine, no worries! Many educational achievement companies that sell regalia are happy to mail posters, flags, pennants, and class rings directly to your door. You can hang the flags outside and proudly display posters on walls or windows.
You can also create dedicated posts on social media to show off your senior’s achievements and participate in fun challenges that celebrate the whole graduating class. Your grad can show off their class ring on Instagram and encourage their friends to do the same. They can choreograph a dance and incorporate their caps and gowns into the performance to create their own dance challenge on TikTok. It might be silly, but now is the perfect time to add a little silliness into their lives!
No matter what you do, they’ll never forget the effort you made to make their senior year special.
