To The 2020 Finalists

This has been a cruel year to all of us for so many reasons. It has stolen so much from everyone. Of course, some have lost more than others but still doesn’t feel any less bitter.

Last Saturday, May 30th, it was supposed to be my graduation ceremony. Something I have been expecting since the first day I set foot on campus. Needless is to say that it didn’t happen. For the entire day, everything I did reminded me that it was supposed to be my graduation day, and every time that thought came to my mind I wanted to cry.

In Portugal, the graduation ceremony is different from the ceremony we see in American movies. It starts a week before the day. During that week, every class and evaluation are forbidden. It’s called the Academic Week and it’s all about the finalists. Every day there are concerts that take place all night. That week is always bittersweet, it’s the best week of your life when you celebrate the last three years with the friends you made along them, but at the same time you realize that it’s all coming to an end soon.

Then the day comes, the campus is filled with thousands of people. The finalists, their families and friends, and all the other students. It starts at 11am with the blessing of the ribbons, followed by lunch with family and friends. At 2pm the ceremony starts, one by one the courses burn the tip of one of the ribbons. This, believe it or not, goes until 6am of the next day.

After burning the ribbons, you are thrown into a pool (only if you want to of course). You choose up to five people to throw you in, normally it’s the most important people for you. In my case it was going to be my parents, my boyfriend and my best friend.

Even though the ceremony is in the end of May or beginning of June and it is super-hot outside, I was thrilled to wear my academic uniform one last time. Even knowing my feet would have blisters due to those super uncomfortable shoes, I didn’t mind. I wanted to put the cape on my shoulders one last time, hug the friends I made during my three years in Évora and feel like a finalist.

However, it didn’t happen. We were sent home in March with no clue of when or if we were going to meet again. During that day I tried to keep myself busy. I exercised with my best friend, I went grocery shopping with my parents, cleaned my room, but none of that made me forget the fact that I wasn’t in Évora saying goodbye to the city that welcomed me for 3 years.

The graduation ceremony is a ritual of passage that marks the end of your academic life and the start of your professional one. Us, the 2020 finalists were robbed of this moment because of a virus that already robbed us of so much. I’m sure that every finalist student around the world feels like me. That bittersweet feeling that won’t go away as much as you try.

To all the 2020 finalists, even though you don’t feel like a finalist right now, hopefully your moment will come. 2020 has been a shitty year but we cannot let it weaken us. We will survive this and thrive.