‘I didn’t get a graduation’: How the Class of 2020 turned their pandemic loss into a running joke on TikTok

The Class of 2020 still aren’t over the COVID-19 pandemic cancelling their graduation. Apparently they never stop bringing it up, according to TikTok. Now their complaints are being used as a punchline.

Being robbed? “Did you know that I didn’t get a graduation.”

Slip on ice? “I didn’t have a prom, I didn’t have a homecoming.”

Oh, your grandma just died? “Okay, well if you think that’s bad, I literally didn’t graduate.”

While the trend has been around since Gen Z did—or didn’t—graduate in 2020, with some reminiscing on those “unprecedented” times and others crashing their siblings’ graduations in place of their own, it has recently picked up traction again.

In the past few weeks, it has merged with another trend in which TikTokkers explain how certain people would react to a glass being half full or half empty. Instead of just the classic “optimist” or “pessimist,” the trend includes the points of view of random people, characters, or the Class of 2020.

“It wasn’t even like a graduation, it was like a drive thru and you just grabbed your diploma,” one creator laments.

The humor is mostly self-referential, reflecting Gen Z’s coping mechanism of choice: “Me using every opportunity to remind my friends that I was Class of 2020,” another jokes.

And it’s hard to deny the Class of 2020 were dealt a bad hand. Their senior year did, after all, coincide with a global health crisis. Five years ago, what started as a week off school spiraled into an unprecedented global emergency, the ripple effects of which are still being felt.

While the COVID-19 pandemic impacted Americans of all ages, the Class of 2020 was uniquely positioned to experience the shockwaves across their social lives, finances, and careers as they transitioned into adulthood.

In the throes of the pandemic, unemployment among people under age 24 jumped from 8.4% to 24.4%. Researchers have found that beginning a career during a recession can depress earnings for 10 years and leave lasting impacts for decades.

It’s no surprise, then, that the identities of the Class of 2020 are tied to this once-in-a-lifetime crisis. If they want to complain about it, the least we can do is let them.

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