Helen Pitt (in pink taffeta) at her year 12 farewell.Credit:Tracey Blundell
So too,I imagine,formal hire and high-end frock shop owners across the state,whose disappointment can only be matched by the vast number of teenage girls pining for this excuse for some retail therapy. Not to mention the businesses associated with the costly school formal industry:function centres,restaurants,hairdressers,make-up artists,fancy car rentals and florists who will feel the blow too. And teachers who in their own way I am sure enjoy marking the end of the school calendar with a bit of ceremony;although many will breathe a sigh of relief that the recorder has been banned at school assemblies. Who could ever dream of a day when singing was outlawed in schools? But that's what it's come to for the corona class of 2020.
Certainly,the shy and sartorially challenged – like my year 12 son – will be thinking,"Phew,I dodged a bullet there"avoiding the tricky subject of who to ask to the formal,or learning how to dance.
Helen Pitt and school friends at their year 12 farewell.Credit:Tracey Blundell
Many of those in their final year like him are sitting trial HSC exams this week:but this is a trial of a different kind,even if they don't fully appreciate it. Rituals – from graduations to weddings,birthdays and funerals – are forced to take a different tone during this COVID-19 chapter. But they matter. Still.
Sure,this is a generation that has been lauded in graduation ceremonies from everything from kindergarten – where everyone got an award – to sports ceremonies where everyone got a trophy. But there will now be an empty space in the family photo albums for the rite of passage that bookends school life.
The year 12 photos of earlier generations may be consigned to the bottom of the bookshelf and rarely looked at,but at least we have them. Even if we'd rather forget.
What I didn't understand when I finished school – but I do now – is that graduation is as much about the people who got you there,mainly our parents and families who formed us. It's them who did the daily waking of the student,washed the school uniforms,made the sandwiches,attended parent/teacher nights,school plays,stood on sports'sidelines in the rain,and were cheerleaders-in-chief during the entire school journey.
Celebrating the end of this via Zoom simply won't do. I hope these milestones will be celebrated at a later date and reframed – even if the photos won't be. But until then let me say to you all,year 12 students,teachers,principals and particularly parents across NSW:well done. In the absence of anything else,pull out your tattered old kindergarten copy of Dr Seuss'sOh,the Places You'll Go!,the best graduation gift I ever gave or got. Recite after me:"Congratulations,Today is your day. You're off to Great Places ... Go,get on your way!"
Get our Morning&Evening Edition newsletters