MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — College seniors get to walk across the graduation stage for the first time. The 2020 high school seniors lost their chance to celebrate together because of the pandemic. Liz Newlin said she graduated from her basement.
"When it happened, I was like this is something I don’t want to be doing right now and my mom was like you have to it’s you high school graduation and I was like no it’s not. This is not a graduation," Newlin said.
Elizabeth Seidita graduated while sitting on the couch at home.
"Just sat down on my couch and I watched the slideshow go until my name showed and I watched the speeches and that was just kind of it," Seidita said.
Seidita said she’ll never forget the day her senior year was cancelled.
“I was taking my senior photos actually and I remember getting in the car and my mom goes unfortunately school has been cancelled for the remainder of the school year and I remember actually for hours because I was so upset," Seidita said.
When they got to campus, it was also different from the normal.
"Definitely was a shell shock coming onto campus and being like socially distanced but it honestly made me appreciate so much more of like the value of friendships and being with people," Newlin said.
Seidita said she decided to make that experience into a career.
"It actually made me realize that I wanted to study viruses. It made me realize how impactful they are on the world and how fascinating they can be," Seidita said.
Newlin said she’s excited for the big day and believes her class is part of history.
"t's really cool to like know that we're going to be looked back on and be like wow those people this is what happened to them and look at them now. They're thriving and I just think it's really cool to be like a special part of history," Newlin said.