SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Emily Oberson and her mom Valerie still can’t believe it. Her state thespian competition and here chorus trip was canceled due to coronavirus concerns.
The Hagerty high school senior may not get her prom or graduation either.
“We should be in Tampa today for the state thespian festival,” Valerie Oberson said. “We’re not.”
“I’ve come to terms with the fact that none of it may happen,” Emily Oberson said. “I just really don’t know what to do. We’ve been working for this for graduation for 12 years and I want to see it all pan out. I don’t want it to just end.”
“We’re going to get through this,” Valerie Oberson said. “She is going to go to college. In August? I’m not sure. But she will go.”
Victoria Cartee and Casey Kravchuk are seniors at Oviedo High School and are still holding out hope they will get a graduation ceremony.
“I would still like to graduate even if it’s a little later in the summer because it’s still something we all look forward to,” Cartee said.
“All my friends did it when they graduated, and all my siblings did it, and I wanted the chance to graduate senior year and walk across that stage,” Kravchuk said.
Parents of senior students everywhere are sharing posts on social media, asking for a show of support for the graduating class of 2020.
Parent Renee Cartee said she hopes it helps her daughter know she’s loved, and that this too shall pass.
[RELATED: UCF cancels graduation ceremonies amid coronavirus pandemic]
"It does crush a little bit because there's so much she's done through the years," said Cartee. "I want to see her walk across the stage."
College seniors who planned to attend spring graduation at the University of Central Florida were also crushed.
UCF Senior Mariel Kitaif got word on Tuesday the May graduation had been canceled.
“I wanted my parents to watch me walk across that stage,” Kitaif said.
Kitaif is still holding out hope her 4 years of college memories will include college graduation.
She even bought a special Seniors 2020 Mickey headband to mark the occasion.
She too would like university leaders to consider letting them walk the stage in either the summer or the fall.
That is if COVID-19 precautions have eased by then.
“I’m just afraid they will not give us a commencement ceremony at all,” Kitaif said.
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