Another spring, another slew of college graduations.

It’s a tale as old as time itself. Except this year, it’s different. There will be no gathering with our peers, throwing our hats in air, and then celebrating together afterwards.

Instead most of us will be tuning into a “virtual’ graduation on our computers; that is if most people even bother with it. But that’s just how it is to be graduating amid a pandemic.

Seniors this year aren’t going to be afforded the celebration that those that walked before them enjoyed. Instead they will be under a metaphorical house arrest when we should be walking across the stage.

They will get their diploma in the mail, instead of handed to them by their dean.

They will be drinking alone, instead of one last time at the local bars they enjoyed with their friends as upperclassmen. There will always be a hole in their life experiences where their college graduation should’ve been.

To add insult to injury, seniors are also graduating and matriculating to what likely will be a recession economy due to the Coronavirus.

Graduating students that join the job market during a recession make less than peers that graduate and join a more favorable job market for 10-15 years, according to a study conducted by Stanford.

SO not only will graduates of 2020 be robbed of a precious memory, they will also likely be screwed because of this pandemic for the next decade or so.

High school seniors are also being derived an opportunity to celebrate a 12 year journey that a lot have been together on the entire time. Not all of them will go on to attend college as well.

But at least for some of them they will have a chance to finally walk across a stage to receive a diploma.

The people that are trying to do something to soothe the pain felt by graduating seniors are former president and former first lady, Barack and Michelle Obama. The Obamas are to give a virtual commencement for the entire country on May 16 at 8 P.M., according to Time Magazine. This was a nice gesture by Obama, whose speeches serve as a cup of ice water on the scorched jumbled speech we have grown accustomed to hearing from the current Commander-in-Chief.

Yet, it doesn’t stop one from feeling disappointed with how the end of this school year turned out for everyone.

From the bottom of my heart, to anyone graduating this year I am sorry for how this turned for you. Better times are ahead. Hopefully.

Almost all of the college sports seasons were either suspended, if they were already in play, or cancelled, if they had yet to start, by mid March.

This had many far-reaching implications on many people, academic institutions, and corporations that relied on these sports for either entertainment or revenue.

Many estimate that Vegas casinos and other avenues of gambling lost over 100$ million dollars with the cancelation of the Men’s basketball tournament, also known as ‘March Madness’, which was consistently one of the biggest gambling events of the year.

The event’s cancellation could be a huge blow to a legal sports gambling industry still in its infancy. Many schools that do not field a football, or at least a division 1 FBS football team, relied on revenues from their more popular winter and spring sports to support sports that don’t generate as much revenue, or may even be operating in the red.

This may cause some schools to trim down some of their smallers sports or cut them out altogether. This would have a drastic effect on the faculty employed in those sports, as well as the athletes that compete and have scholarships for those sports. More on the latter of these two later though. Many sports stations and streaming services that had secured the rights to broadcast these sports are losing out on millions, if not billions, collectively.

The aforementioned march madness tournament is one the biggest television events of the year while also spanning several weeks. It brought both revenue and ad money that just can’t be replaced with anything else, especially with professional sports being on a hiatus too.

Despite all these hardships that have been previously mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, they only touch upon lightly the people that I feel for the most: the Student-Athletes that were robbed of a season. Right away eligibility issues arise. The NCAA, the body that governs most collegiate sports in America, is notorious for making boneheaded decisions of which the logic that guided them there is unclear. To give them credit though, they did decide that all spring athletes would be able to be given an extra season of eligibility to make up for this lost season. But some athletes might not be able to take advantage of this.

For one, they may have already had jobs lined up for the upcoming year upon graduating. Also, not all athletes are on scholarship. Many of them are ‘walk-ons’ people who do not receive financial rewards for their athletic contributions.

For this group it doesn’t make financial sense to stay another year on their own bill. All of this isn’t to mention the winter sports athletes that were robbed of the ending of their season. Imagine being a senior. You know your next few games are all do-or-die games.

Everytime you step foot on the court, it could be the last time you’re doing it competitively.

You hyped yourself, knowing that from here on out you’re going to give it your all and…. That last game just never comes. That must be devastating, as most of these student athletes are not being granted an extra year of eligibility.

To all the student-athletes of the winter and spring sports, you have my sincerest condolences. I am truly sorry that this pandemic robbed what little precious time most of you have left to compete in the sports you all respectively love. It doesn’t compare to the people who are dying, but it really is a tragedy in and of itself.

It’s been close to two months now since students were sent home from Northern Essex Community college.

Most of these students have been confined to their houses, save for a few trips to the grocery store.

A lot of them, a-lot of everybody, are starting to get just a little stir-crazy. So it begs the question….. When are things going to go back normal? And what will this new normal be like?

As some in the country seem to be “flattening the curve”, many people are starting to become restless and pine for the days of just 2 months ago, which seems so much longer ago, where friends could gather and enjoy each other’s company.

On top of this, many forms of entertainment have been shelved or greatly reduced due to the virus. All foreseeable concerts have been cancelled, public gatherings of any kind are a big No-No, and sports are virtually not existent.

There have been talks about sports opening back up, but it would have to be in front of empty crowds. That just feels weird to say.

Also many business owners are feeling the burden that a near total shutdown of the state brings. Many restaurants, bars, florists, and other places of business that rely on foot traffic likely won’t make it out of this; at least not without major government intervention.

This restlessness and desperation to open backup manifest itself in the protests taking place, though they are happening in smaller numbers across the country. President Trump, in his typical fashion, stroked the flames of this protest himself when he tweeted out “Free the people of Michigan!” encouraging the protesters to congregate during a pandemic and protests a state administration building that was mostly empty… because of said pandemic.

So obviously some people really want this to be over, while others need it to be over soon if they want their business to keep running.

But how do we know when it’s safe to reopen? It was when we had a vaccine? That could take 18-24 months, according to most major news outlets. Is it when the curve has flattened? That could invite a second wave of increasing rates of infection, according to many health experts like Dr. Fauci. Should it be when it seems like the economy can not take being shut down? But what kind of message would that send to the elderly and people with a predisposed risk that economical practices are more important than their very own lives.

That’s the thing: No one really knows when we should open back up or even what measures we should decide to use when guessing when to open back up. We’re in uncharted territory and we need to tread lightly. Otherwise… well otherwise I don’t really know what will happen.