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Culture

Culture Editor: Heather Bair – zzzx@iup.edu Lead Culture Writer: Haley Brown – ydmx@iup.edu

Celebrate graduation from your couch with these tips

(Facebook) With celebrating graduation at home, you can make your own graduation cake by finding inspiration from Pinterest or Facebook.

This article contains opinion. ANNA MECHLING Lead News Writer A.Mechling@iup.edu @ThePennIUP

Graduation is something many people look forward to when they start their college career.

Graduating college is major accomplishment. College is a different experience for every individual person, but for many people college is a time to learn, grow, socialize and study a wide variety of subjects.

Unfortunately for seniors, graduation won’t exactly be what they expected it would have been, graduation ceremony-wise.

As a graduating senior, I am grateful that IUP has chosen to postpone the intended May graduation commencement ceremony. Some schools have canceled ceremonies altogether, which seems unfair to seniors who have worked hard and deserve a day of recognition.

IUP is having a virtual ceremony this week, which I’m excited about. I’m glad IUP is recognizing their graduating students around the actual time frame we were supposed to celebrate graduation.

I have thought of a few tips, tricks and ideas to make graduation mean something more than being locked up and not being able to celebrate it with friends, family and other important people who’ve been a part of your college journey.

Dress up

The one and only thing I’ve enjoyed during this quarantine and doing classwork online has been being able to wear sweatpants and staying cozy all day. I was never a college student who wore sweatpants to class, so being able to wear sweatpants while doing schoolwork has been a great experience for me.

However, to make graduation more special and meaningful, put those comfy sweats away and dress up. You deserve to look and feel nice on a day that was meant to be a memorable day.

Bake or get some drool-worthy food

If you’ve been like most people, you’ve been trying to stay inside and use up some free time by baking a cake, brownies or cupcakes. Even though graduation won’t be celebrated with tons of friends and family, you can still celebrate with those who are living in the same household as you are.

Many people are continuing to stay safe and are going out when they need things like food or bathroom products. However, if you’re out grocery shopping, pick up a cake or some freshly baked cookies to celebrate.

Celebrating graduation in isolation and without a formal in-person graduation ceremony shouldn’t mean you can’t enjoy things like desserts and food.

Video chat with relatives or friends

Even though you can’t see them in person, that doesn’t mean you can’t video call them and celebrate.

Zoom has been a positive aspect of this pandemic, allowing people to stay connected and communicate no matter how far or close they are.

Video chat with your family, and then video chat with your friends. This is a great way to catch up, exchange congratulations and even potentially play fun virtual games to keep the fun going.

Wear your cap and gown and take pictures.

Since IUP’s in-person graduation commencement ceremony is postponed until Sept. 12, this is a great way to celebrate and create graduation photos for friends and family.

This can also be a graduation announcement photo. You can work on your graduation announcement by adding any photos you take and sending them out now.

Make a scrapbook.

I know I have so many pictures of myself and my friends throughout my four years in college. This is a great way to utilize online photo services like Shutterfly to upload pictures and create a memorable photo album for yourself, family members or friends.

Arts and crafts.

If you’re like me, I haven’t decorated my cap yet. Therefore, it’s a great time to celebrate graduation week by decorating your cap and making it special.

You can also decorate personalized cards if you want to mail out any cards to family, friends or professors.