Tale of two seniors

For the third time in 37 years someone asked me to give a graduation speech. It’s amazing that I would consider saying yes after what happened the first time. Oh, you haven’t heard this story. About 20 years ago I was asked to give a speech to a local high school graduating class. I was told the date and time and place, the Empire State Plaza. The morning arrives and I take the speech, which I had spent a week on, off the printer and drive to Albany. For those who have never parked at the plaza, you have to drive underground and take an elevator up to the main floor.

So, I park, get on the elevator and I’m surrounded by young people in caps and gowns. What would you do? Yep, I follow them to the big room where they are about to hear me speak.

When we get to the room, I make my way up to the stage, find a seat and start studying my speech. A half hour or so goes by and things are about to start when someone says, “Who are you and why are you up here?” I told them I was John Gray and I was “up here” because I was giving the big speech. The man said, “Well I’m the principal, you don’t belong here, and you aren’t giving any speeches.”

Someone overheard this conversation and chimed in saying, “Did you know there are TWO graduation ceremonies here at the plaza today?” Yeah, I was in the wrong one. So, I run like a maniac a couple hundred yards to the correct room and get there as the kids are marching in to music. Everyone thought I must have forgotten or had just blown them off. It wasn’t my best moment. So I normally would say no to another speech to young people who probably don’t want to hear anything I have to say, but, this was Hudson Valley Community College asking and I am a graduate, I love the place and I could never say no.

I won’t go into what I told the students for their “virtual” graduation, only revealing my speech was short and sweet and I told them how lucky they were to go to H.V.C.C.

Instead, I’d rather tell you the tale of two seniors; one I met and interviewed for a TV story and the other is on my Facebook page. The one I met is missing out on a lot of the fun stuff that goes with being a high school senior, including her prom and a proper graduation ceremony. I asked her how sad this whole pandemic made her and she told me, “I’m of course disappointed but I think when we look back on this time we’ll be proud that we lived through this and helped others and did our part.”

Wow, I thought, not bad for 17 year’s old.

The other senior is graduating from college and could not have a more opposite opinion on the situation. Every post is about how graduates in 2020 are being robbed of something, how unfair this all is and how they will have a hard time getting over it. As I write this column, this young lady shared an article from Time magazine that went on and on about how this pandemic will forever shape and scar these fragile students.

The lack of closure is stealing their identity. The lack of jobs will have them living in their parent’s basement doing damage to their self-esteem. It basically was a “get out of jail free” card for every 22-year-old who doesn’t, from this moment forward, go on to have an amazing life. Future drug problem?

Blame it on 2020. Didn’t become president of the company and have a vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard by the time you were 40? Yep, blame it on that damn pandemic.

Listen, there is nothing that doesn’t stink about what we are all living through, especially the fact that far too many are not living through it, they are dying. But this isn’t the first time a young person has faced challenges or had their plans go sideways. I’m sure there are more than a few 18-year old’s who went off to World War II who would tell you, “Yeah, this was not the summer I had planned after graduation.”

Please understand, I’m not calling anyone “snowflakes”’, quite the opposite. I think young people today are far tougher than we give them credit for and Time magazine writing long articles that these kids are reading and sharing, telling them their lives will forever be a mess because of this pandemic are harmful.

These students are better than that. The virus is awful, but it will end. The job market stinks but it will get better. Every single storm that has ever rocked the earth at some point ends.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “A woman is like a tea bag, you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.” Well, right now the water is quite hot. How these kids face it will determine everything and treating them like wounded birds doesn’t help.

Believe in them. Period.