It hit me as I stood baking on the football field at Sullivan West this past Saturday morning that I'd hit my 18th year of covering graduations for the Sullivan County Democrat.

Eighteen years. My span of covering the final hurrah for Sullivan County's senior classes is now officially old enough to graduate.

And in those years, I've seen enough to fill dozens upon dozens of pages of the paper.

The children of old schoolmates walk their final walk through the halls of their high school. The babysitters who'd spent their summers in my home say their final goodbyes.

Thousands of Sullivan County kids, some terrified, some cocksure, all excited to see what it is the world has to offer after they depart from their tiny schools for the “real” world.

They've all been there — the athletes, the musicians, the writers, the dreamers, the worker bees, and everyone in between.

As we've all come to see, everything we see in 2020 is just a little bit different. This was my first graduation split into two entirely separate ceremonies to accommodate social distancing guidelines, my first graduation at which I topped off my outfit with a mask, my first graduation for which I didn't crowd into a small room with dozens of students, mingling close as I captured candid “before” shots.

But what was marked about both ceremonies was how very much the same they were as all those that came in the 17 years before them.

There were whoops of joy and speeches chock full of hopes and dreams.

There were proud faculty and hardworking support staff scrambling to keep it all running smoothly.

There were parents and grandparents, siblings and friends, all there to say “This is just the first step, and we'll be here all along the way.”

Best of all were the athletes, the musicians, the writers, the dreamers, the worker bees, and everyone in between.

A pandemic might have taken away their normal, but it hasn't taken away their adventure.