Dear USC Class of 2020

By: Talia Walters ‘20

I’m not usually a sentimental person, but considering the current situation, I think it calls for a little bit of sentimentality and a short reflection of my 4 years at USC.

I guess it’s best to start by addressing the elephant in the room: graduation is this Friday, and it’s going to be online. After four incredibly long years of all-nighters and frustrating classes and finals that make you want to rip your hair out, we get a virtual conferring of degrees.

And if I’m being honest, that kind of sucks.

I need to make it clear that I’m not really complaining. I’ve been incredibly lucky to be relatively stable throughout quarantine. My jobs were able to move remotely, I was able to keep paying rent on my place in LA with my friends, and my family is in relatively good health. Some days I even get to feel some semblance of normal, and I’m so thankful that I get to have those moments because not everyone does. But I also think it’s okay to be upset over the not-so-monumental ending to college.

I turned in my last final yesterday with my graduation cap on while my roommate napped. It was a little anti-climactic.

And now we’re all just expected to go off into the unknown with little knowledge of what the future looks like. As a recent graduate with very little direction or surety before the pandemic, that thought is horrifying! How in the world am I supposed to job search when I don’t even know what I’m doing with my life, let alone during a nationwide lock-down the size of which we’ve never seen.

We thought we were safe from the 2008 recession the millennials were given, but lo and behold, the universe didn’t want us to feel left out.

While I’m sad about not having this big (SC)end off, I’m almost more upset that some of the memories I have of my “final” moments at USC weren’t originally supposed to be so final. The last time I walked out of Doheny library, I was in a rush to meet a friend for dinner. The last time I sat in a classroom, I was counting down the minutes because I wanted to go on Spring Break. The last time I got lunch at RTCC, I was watching Netflix on my phone because I hated eating alone. All of those final experiences that I was hoping to have be big, extravagant moments with my friends were lost to busy everyday life.

It’s honestly quite heart-breaking.

I don’t want this all to be sad, though, because that would be a really stupid post. If I just wrote a letter to the class of 2020 that pretty much was like “wow, this is awful, good luck with the rest of your life,” it wouldn’t be that exciting to read.

Originally this post was supposed to be a bunch of messages from faculty and other students saying congratulations with profound life advice, but it turns out Carol Folt beat me to it, so I was left with just my own message. Granted, I am but a lowly fellow 2020 graduate with no more life experience than all of you, but I’m the one with a platform, and that makes me qualified to talk!

I don’t want to be all cheesy and say that college was the best four years of our lives (because let’s be real, that’s also really sad), but it would also be a lie to say that none of this mattered. We all got to experience USC in our own ways, and we met new friends who will hopefully be around forever, new experiences that we’ll hopefully cherish, and the chance of a lifetime to study and continue our education at a university that was the best of all worlds.

USC is literally in a big city only a few miles from the beach with research funding and great liberal arts programs and one of the best cinema schools in the world AND ALSO a great football team – what more could we have possibly asked for?

A family sticks together through thick and thin, and the Trojan Family sticks together whether or not there’s a formal graduation ceremony happening in a few days. While this may be the end of our undergraduate education at USC, it’s not the last time we’re Trojans, and I think it’s important to remember that while the bad seems really, really bad right now, the good will always outshine.

So while I’m sad that all those final moments were unexpectedly final, I’m glad I got those moments in the first place. I’m glad I got to tailgate out on McCarthy quad in the LA sun, and I’m glad that I got to study in Leavey until 9am during finals weeks, and I’m glad that I got to wander around and explore campus late into the night on weekends during my freshman year. USC was an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world, and I don’t think any of you would either.

I guess my end message is to remember the good times and take the bad ones in stride. That also doesn’t seem like too bad life advice if I do say so myself.

And finally, I guess I’m going to be a bit selfish at the end here and just say thanks to everyone. Thanks to professors and the faculty for enriching my education for the last 4 years. Thanks to my friends for always being there, and thanks to my family for supporting my decision to move across the country at 18. Thanks to the policy debate team and the rest of TDS for helping me continue doing something I love, thanks to the American Language Institute for helping me meet some of the coolest and smartest people I’ll ever have the privilege to work with, and thanks to the rest of Trojans 360 for helping me develop my voice and get my thoughts out on this platform.

It’s been fun, y’all, and while I’m upset that it has to end like this, at least we all get to do it together.

Fight On Forever!

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