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OPINION

The generation that entered a world in crisis has taken command

Your parents were initially afraid to bring you into the world, but now we know you are going to change it.

By Patti HartiganUpdated June 5, 2020, 2:45 a.m.
Bill Hanisch/Handout

To the high school class of 2020: Your milestones are bookended by crises. Most of you were in our bellies on Sept. 11, 2001. We adults scrambled to find information on our relatives in New York City or Washington, D.C., or on planes that left Boston and never landed. Many of us struggled with morning sickness and wondered what we were doing bringing children into a world gone crazy. I was pregnant with twins. And then we came to our senses. You were our only hope. We heard the military planes flying over our homes and tried to stay calm. And then we felt you kick. And we knew you were going to be OK.

Now you won’t get a traditional graduation because of the coronavirus.

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But you, the generation that entered a world in crisis, have taken command. You walked in the Women’s March in 2016. You demanded gun control after the atrocity at Parkland. You stand with Greta Thunberg to advocate for climate change. You embrace every kind of gender identity.

Looking west toward the White House, people fill Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington during the "March for Our Lives" rally in support of gun control on March 24, 2018. The rally was organized following the mass shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14.
Looking west toward the White House, people fill Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington during the "March for Our Lives" rally in support of gun control on March 24, 2018. The rally was organized following the mass shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14.Alex Brandon

Your parents were initially afraid to bring you into the world, but now we know you are going to change it. It’s disappointing that you didn’t get to go to prom or participate in senior Skip Day or sit in the sweltering sun wearing an ugly, stifling robe waiting for your name to be called.

But you will know that none of that matters. You are the 9/11 babies. You have already made your mark, and the world is yours to change. Take it. Congratulations, and it’s fine if you "OK boomer” us. We are by your side.

Patti Hartigan is a former member of the Globe staff. Her children are graduating from Concord Carlisle High School.