This is the time each year we celebrate commencement. We often think of commencement events as something ending, but the word quite literally means the start of something. Something new is commencing. 

This highlights the choice we make when we move on from school, a job, a city… or maybe a pandemic.

Is this ending, and we’re resigned to return to how things were before we started this journey?

or

Is this the beginning of something new, and we acknowledge something (maybe “everything”) has changed?