Our provost at Pacific Lutheran University, Dr. Joanna Gregson, reminded me this week of how you, the class of 2020, started your college education. It was the fall of 2016. Whatever your political leanings, it was a time when the open partisan wound that is the United States today became our undeniable reality. The anger, the resentment, the frustration of feeling invisible became, arguably, the greatest challenge our democracy has faced.

The ignorance in which I used to live would have led me to think I might have some wisdom to offer you at this point in your lives. Covid-19 has disabused me of that notion. There is nothing in my experience from which I can draw to offer you any advice. Well, there are the classics…persistence, practice…

I might have said to you, “Stay engaged, no matter how hard it gets.” That would not have been bad advice, but, coming from me to you, it would be meaningless. You are being tested in ways that I never was. It’s still good advice, but my experience can only provide a suggestion.

Don’t misunderstand, my generation may still have something to offer you, wisdom-wise. We have a lot of human experience. We have made a lot of mistakes that you don’t necessarily need to make. Yet, for this moment, this challenge, no one is better prepared or equipped than you are. You have already been tested. Your refinement by fire has already begun.

You may feel doubt in this moment. I hope that my confidence in you will help just a little to ease that doubt. You can meet the challenge. You are exactly what we need at this moment. I’m 1974. I’ve had my time, and it’s been great. You are 2020! You are now. You are this moment. You are up to the challenge, and for what it’s worth, we have your back.