College graduations will be twice as sweet for class whose high school celebrations happened online
Jacob McCullough is eagerly awaiting the day he'll cross the stage at Bethel University's graduation.
"I just hope I don't trip when I walk across," he said half-joking. "I don't have any practice."
Thousands of people will graduate from Minnesota colleges this year. For many, including McCullough, it will be their first chance to have an in-person ceremony. High school graduations were upended four years ago by COVID-19 lockdowns — making this year's college celebrations twice as momentous.
Without the big high school ceremony, "it felt like you skipped over something, and all of a sudden I was in college," said Onella Nkurunziza, who will graduate soon from the University of St. Thomas.
Nkurunziza was studying abroad in Wisconsin when the pandemic sped up her plans to return home to Rwanda. Her family gathered in the living room to watch her high school ceremony. This year, they'll fly in to watch her walk across the stage, cheering as she goes.
"Getting to have that experience finally is exciting," Nkurunziza said. She noted: "Four years is a hustle."
Elliot Steeves is feeling more relaxed about graduation this year. His final months at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis were spent online, and "anytime I thought about the transition to college, it felt like mostly I was grieving the very sudden end of something."
He watched the video of his high school graduation in his pajamas, while eating takeout. His upcoming graduation from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., will happen on a field outside, weather permitting. He'll be surrounded by classmates.
Maybe it's the passage of time. Maybe it's the end of lockdowns, but "I feel just way more peaceful and settled about graduation and that transition process specifically," he said.
Ian Zukor was scheduled to give the speech for his Wayzata High School graduation on the stage at 3M Arena at Mariucci at the University of Minnesota. But COVID-19 moved the ceremony online, so he pre-recorded his message instead.
"It was happy but weird, which almost anyone would tell you," he said.
On Sunday, Zukor got the chance to finally deliver a speech inside the arena — this time as a graduate of the University of Minnesota.
"I'm thrilled," he said. "I really see it as a special moment in my life timeline."
COVID-19 changed college
When McCullough's high school graduation moved online, celebrating almost felt like an afterthought.
"It wasn't like the world was going on normally and we were the only ones suffering with no graduation," he said.
Masking and social distancing were still commonplace when he started at Bethel University. Movie nights happened outside, with people spaced 6 feet apart. Food from dining halls was served in take-out containers. The only people he saw without masks were the guys on his floor, the people who remain his best friends to this day.
When he looked back through his photos of those early days on campus, "it was fun to relive those things and just realize how crazy that was and, in a sense, how far we've come at the same time."
His final days at Bethel University will be different. There will be a benediction. There will be a graduation ceremony and a reception. Senioritis is kicking in, and McCullough is "hitting the point where I'm ready to run across that stage."
