so, earlier i saw a post making fun of the idea of kids having a tumblr prom, and i laughed too, because i remembered how silly that was back in, what, 2011? but it wasn’t all that silly, it was pretty cute, actually. a lot of people dressed up, some in character, and asked each other out, and posted costumes and drew each other flowers, and yeah maybe it was a little cringey, but it was sweet. it was well-meaning. a lot of people genuinely had fun.
and it isn’t 2011 again, is the thing.
this year, an entire graduating class of seniors isn’t going to get to go to prom. or graduation. at all. ever. no homecoming, no prom, no graduation, no signing yearbooks. maybe you’re old enough that you don’t remember how much these things meant when you were eighteen, and maybe they really didn’t mean anything to you at all, but this is something that until a month ago millions of teenagers had every expectation of getting to do, and now they won’t. these are milestones a century of american teens have gotten to celebrate as they grew from kids to young adults, and these kids this year get to sit at home and watch the world burn as a bunch of old people lie to each other.
let them have an online prom. let them dress up and reach out to each other and try to find a little joy in a world that has profoundly failed them. i’m a millennial, i know how bitter it is to come of age and find everything i was promised by everyone older than me to evaporate just before i reached it: that good job college was supposed to get me, that house in the suburbs, the world that wasn’t on fire. and now gen z is going through something even worse.
the kids aren’t alright. no one is alright. none of this is alright.
not doing school in the traditionally accepted way is ok
if you’re in special ed, if you’re doing courses at a slower tempo, if you have to redo a year, or any of the many many variations to the socially acceptable version of “completing school”
that’s ok. you’re fine, those options exist for a reason, you’re not “cheating” or “lazy”, it’s ok.
ifesbob 