Whether it is finishing high school or wrapping up college, graduation is a great occasion to celebrate. Go through this article to know how you can do that.
Graduation is a major milestone in every students’ life. It is a day to celebrate and recognize their incredible academic achievements. With virtual graduations around the corner, thousands of students and their families are pondering what can be done to make the day more special in this unusual time of a pandemic.
It may not be possible to replicate the joy and feelings of an in-person convocation, but there are certain steps you can take to make this experience memorable.
If you’re a graduate or celebrating a graduate, here are some tips on how to turn the day into a more special one.
1. Ask Your Family and Friends to Join You Virtually
If you’re a graduate, invite your family, friends, and other loved ones to join the celebration and share the experience with you. As it is an online celebration, it is a unique opportunity for anyone, anywhere in the world, to be a part of your big day. Therefore, if you have any loved ones abroad, deliver them the link to make them a part of your celebration as well.
2. Dress-up
Dressing up in something special can make the day more meaningful. You can select a theme with your friends for the occasion. As for the family and friends of the grads, they will feel more loved and valued if they see you all dressed up for their special day, even on FaceTime or a Zoom call.
3. Arrange a Virtual Graduation Party
If you are a grad, invite your friends and family to unite for a virtual toast. You can even pick a fancy dress option and enjoy watching what they dress as their virtual self!
If you are a close one of the graduates, a graduation party planning and giving live tributes and speeches is a great way to celebrate their graduation. You can also order a graduation cake. Bakeries throughout the country have been baking amazing graduation cakes. Buying the graduate’s favorite flowers, meal, or a treat, and having it delivered to them is a nice way to surprise them.
4. Decorate
This one is for the friends and family of the grads! Balloons, streamers, ornaments, or lawn signs- wherever you are, decorate and make them have a festive feeling. Whether the graduate sees you in person, or on a video call, your efforts are going to touch them for sure.
Adorn the grad’s chair at the kitchen table and make them feel more important for a day, week, or even longer.
Make a big picture collage of your graduate through the years, and use it to decorate the front door of your home. If a full-door collage looks too pushy, display a smaller photo frame, a balloon arc, or a photo wreath.
5. Create Photo Album or Scrapbook
Family and friends can surprise the graduate with a photo album or scrapbook to help memorialize their life journey to top achievements over the years. This can be everything from their childhood photos to pictures with their best friends.
6. Video Tribute
If you are a grad, create a video of your special memories in education with friends and classmates, then enjoy their reactions as they watch it on Zoom.
If you’re celebrating a grad, ask all the close ones to make a video clip and send it to celebrate the major milestone. Assembling the clips together, and showing it on the graduation day will be a special surprise for the grads. It will also work as a celebratory keepsake for the upcoming years.
7. Make a Virtual Kudos Board
It is an excellent idea for graduates of all ages. Make a virtual group card filled with photos, videos, messages, and GIFs. Google Drive, Slack, Trello, Microsoft OneNote, Zoho, and many other platforms can help you with this. Whatever platform you choose, invite friends, family, teachers, and others to share fond memories, write special messages, and celebrate your graduation.
8. Make a Playlist
If there are certain songs that you and your friends liked listening to during your university days, you can make a playlist with these songs and share them with your friends, you can also play them throughout the graduation day. Family members and friends can also make a playlist of their favorite songs to surprise the grad.
9. Take Photos
Take pictures throughout the day. Snapping photos will help catch beautiful moments to look back to, even if it is the graduate photo watching the celebration on a monitor, or pics of friends and family raising their glasses on a Zoom call.
10. Share on Social Media
Share the celebration picture on your social media accounts, like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Writing a heart-touching post about your educational days can also make you feel better.
11. A Car Parade
You, along with your family and friends, can celebrate the day by decorating your vehicles and parading them up and down the street with some honks here and there.
12. Connect, Reflect, Bid Farewell
If you are a graduate, take time to connect with those people who have made some differences in your life during your university days, you can arrange a virtual coffee chat, or dinner with your favorite professor to thank him or her, or mail cards of appreciation to the people who left an impact in your life. These expressions will help bring recognition that an important chapter is going to end, help with closure, and ease the adaptation.
Graduation is the end of serious investment of energy and time. It signifies the beginning of a new journey- a career path, new job, or personal pursuit. Graduation this year may not go the way any of us had planned. However, with a little creativity, it is possible to make it as special as the traditional ones. Congratulations, graduates!
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