Every year, 3,898,000 people graduate college, according to educationdata.org., a website that compiles data from the National Center for Education Statistics and the World Bank. May 9, 2020 was supposed to be my graduation day, a day I had patiently waited on for 22 years...and then...Corona.
For the past four years, I have been working toward a career in sports media, more specifically I have been working toward getting a job with the New York Yankees. This past December, I flew across the country to attend Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings and inevitably landed an internship with the Charleston RiverDogs; a minor league team affiliated with the New York Yankees in South Carolina. The RiverDogs have a particularly good track record with hiring interns for full-time, year-round work, and if the team doesn’t have a position available in Charleston, administrators will help you find a job.
As I walked into Joseph P. Riley Jr. stadium on my first day as a RiverDogs intern, it felt like my dreams were within reach. It put an extra spring in my step to see the interlocking “NY” everywhere. I grinned every time I looked up in the clubhouse to see a quote from a Yankees great.
By the end of our first week, word came down that the internship would be “put on pause” until further notice because of COVID-19; in fact, all of professional baseball was shutting down.
Our amazing bosses have put together weekly webinars to make sure we are all getting some kind of an education on the business of baseball, but they are just as disappointed as we are. Nothing quite beats feeling a sticky, humid summer night on your skin and a feeling of satisfaction when you know you’re part of making a game fun for everyone. Webinars also don’t quite replace the opportunities for networking and proving your worth to the people who have the power to give you your first post-grad job.
I know that all 3,898,000 of us are in the same boat. We all felt like our lives were coming together right as everything came crashing down. We all were robbed of our senior celebrations and end-of-semester memories. Many of us will never get a proper college graduation ceremony.
It feels dumb to complain. I am not a first-generation college graduate. I have not lost any loved ones to this virus. My life is uncomfortable, but not unmanageable. There are people who are put in impossible situations -- people whose dreams are slipping out from their fingertips and there’s nothing they can do about it. But I think it’s okay to be upset that my dream is (hopefully just) a dream delayed.
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