COVID-19 has canceled many major events, and this year’s graduating seniors are feeling the loss.
From high school to college, these students have been denied the rites of passage that make their final weeks of class so special. That’s why Wright State University organized a special commencement speech, and now it’s encouraging seniors everywhere!
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Students in the Dayton, Ohio, college’s performing arts department were thrilled to receive an unforgettable virtual message from none other than actor Tom Hanks.
They couldn’t have chosen someone better! Hanks and his wife, actress Rita Wilson, recently recovered from the novel coronavirus and are now donating their platelets to help the world find a vaccine.
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In a video, Hanks demonstrates how well he understands what the class of 2020 is going through. He calls them the “chosen ones,” and then speaks these powerful words:
You have been chosen in many ways. You are the chosen ones because of a fate unimagined when you began your Wright State adventures. You started in the olden times, in a world back before the great pandemic of 2020. You will talk of those earlier years in your lives just that way. ‘Well, that was before the COVID-19.’
He goes on to say that their lives will forever be divided into “before” and “after” the pandemic and likens the shift to before and after a great war. Then he reminds them that we’re in the middle of “the great reset, the great reboot,” and explains they’re the people who will help “make the new world.”
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In this time of great uncertainty, Hanks is such a reassuring voice of wisdom! He’s absolutely right that these graduating seniors are on a difficult road, but like him, we believe in them!
Watch the full speech in the video below, and don’t forget to share his words with a friend. For more stories of joy and hope, check out the Coronavirus Good News Dashboard.
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