Opinion: We missed out on a proper goodbye, but we made memories for a lifetime
A letter to AU seniors in the wake of COVID-19
Photo courtesy of Ashlyn Peter.
By Ashlyn Peter | March 20, 2020
We have separated so that we can come together.
In times of crisis, AU students always band together. We protest on the quad, in D.C. or on social media. But for the first time, we are being forced to disband in order to facilitate change. This is not the typical AU way.
Never before have we been asked to self-isolate as a country in order to help each other, and never before has a group of graduates had to sacrifice their final months of college due to a global pandemic. This is an unprecedented time for us all, but our history of coming together is what will get AU seniors through a college career that has no definitive resolution.
I checked in with my professor and classmates in a Blackboard discussion thread on Thursday. Other seniors echoed my fear of the disruption in our post-grad job searches, and some classmates made jokes or offered words of encouragement. I was reminded that, even in my isolation, my AU peers are still there for me, as they always have been.
We’ve screamed in the center of the quad together at midnight before final exams, and we’ve nodded from across crowded Metro cars while going to our respective internships. We all love to debate whether Georgetown Cupcakes is better than Baked and Wired as much as we like to debate about politics, and we all know the joy that a “Happy Tuesday!” from Berlin Thomas can bring.
Of course, we’ve struggled, too. World Politics, International Econ, Advanced Research—we were once warned by seniors about these classes, and this year we finally became the sage advice-givers. Our wisdom was hard-earned. Some of us spent our entire AU careers in the dorms—if we can do that, we can do anything.
Our final moments at AU are being reshaped by a global event, but we forget that our first months here were affected by one as well. We are the class of the Trump presidency, and we were still freshmen when we saw bananas dangling on nooses around campus. I watched so many of my peers cry during that time, but I also saw them engulfed in group hugs. In the midst of uncertainty for the future of our country, I felt secure knowing that we were there for each other. As our nation once again battles an unprecedented moment, I still feel that security. We are not the class of tragedy, but the class of resilience. We are the class that comes together, even when we’re forced apart.
As we experience what no other graduating class has, I am reminded of the graduates of 2008. They walked off the commencement stage and into the Great Recession. They couldn’t know what awaited them—they just had to take the leap.
That’s what we must do now. We’ve spent the last four years hoping that our time here would give us the knowledge, the work ethic and the determination we needed to take on the rest of our lives. That hope got some of us on planes, traveling overseas for the first time and learning about the world outside of AU. It carried us to Capitol Hill, where we became history makers, small or large. It let us take part in public displays of hope, from the Women’s March to March for Our Lives.
This is the time when seniors were supposed to search for jobs or prepare for graduate school. Many workplaces, however, are participating in a hiring freeze, and health experts say that the virus could return in the fall, potentially halting university operations again. Everything is up in the air, even our long-awaited commencement ceremony that once seemed so fixed and unmoving as we worked our way toward it since freshman year. It’s hard to watch the finish line disappear just as we approach it.
But the hope that walked beside each of us on the grounds of AU is what will lead us all through this unprecedented time. The one benefit of all this is that we now have an abundance of time to reflect on the time we did have here. We all accomplished something great for ourselves and for our families. Some of us are first-generation graduates or the first of our community to travel outside the country. Some of us published research papers in renowned journals or had a hand in passing important bills.
In our ironic time of mass isolation, we must remember that we are still a united AU. We still experienced the nightlife in DuPont Circle together, proudly held our Library of Congress cards and drank coffee at the Dav and the Bridge. We went to the Anthem after evening classes or partook in $20 Tuesdays at Embassy Tattoo before running to a final exam (or maybe that was just me). We each made the District our own, and we should be proud of that.
Our time at AU has not always been easy, but it was ours. I am so thankful that I got to share a space with all of you—the change-makers, the self-starters, the creative geniuses, the leaders, the wonks. I have been inspired by you all, and I will carry that with me long after May 2020. Once an Eagle, always an Eagle.
Ashlyn Peter is a senior in the School of Communication and an opinion columnist for The Eagle.