Stay Home Stories: making up for lost celebrations on Instagram
Sunday 24-05-2020 - 11:04
We spoke to the student behind the duclassof2020 Instagram account to find out how finalists are feeling about their disrupted last term, and
how you can celebrate your time at Durham digitally.
Easter term has always been my favourite term of the academic year. The 04:30-21:30 sunlit days have kept me company through exam season and then through summer ball season. The wasps on Church Street are terrorizing, sure, but going for a row on River Wear makes up for it. Summer balls, college days, the prospect of going on a grad trip – this Easter term was supposed to be our final hurrah as graduates. The coronavirus has jolted a lot of people into uncomfortable situations and unsettling emotions. It has stripped soon-to-be graduates of things we wish we had the chance to experience as finalists: being welcomed by champagne and confetti upon leaving the exam hall for the last time, our final pint at the Swan, one last Ignition at Babylon, and the most momentous of them all, graduating.
Desperate to keep myself busy while being stuck at home in quarantine – in a way that did not involve studying for exams – the idea I had for the duclassof2020 page on Instagram was really just a product of procrastination. I knew I wanted to create a way to honour the graduating class of 2020 and I thought creating this page would let me, and everyone else who wanted to the same, to do so. I became incredibly invested in making the idea work when I realised the potential the page had in immortalising everyone’s favourite memories at Durham. As I write this, it’s been less than two days since I’ve started the page and I’ve received more interest than I was initially expecting. I hope people can use this account as a way of celebrating everything Durham has offered us: finding some of our best friends, being smarter than we’ve ever been before, and preparing us for whatever is to come next.
Though we might not get the graduation ceremony we’ve all been looking forward to and definitely deserve, I hope this page makes us feel celebrated anyway. So, I hope you send me a couple of pictures from your years at Durham that you routinely look at when scrolling through your camera roll – whether it be because of the people, the place, or the moment the picture was taken. If you have any questions at all, please DM me over at @duclassof2020!
Congratulations, Class of 2020. We did it.
