The country is at a stand still and I see some people torn by what needs to be done (social distancing) and tradition. Its common knowledge that the COVID-19 virus has led to our stand still. Overhearing the chatter between parents of high school seniors, I have noticed the struggle between their want of tradition and to keep everyone safe. Personally, I have a sister that is a senior in high school and my parents are experiencing this right now. Will they have graduation? Will they have prom? Will they have their Senior Day? The answers are unknown. Graduations have been postponed to unknown dates and unknown venues. No one has spoken about prom or Senior Day to the students or their parents. We assume none of these events will take place because these kids will be off to college in the months to come. Yet, we still yearn for these Seniors to go through their rite of passage.
My parents wanted to do something for my sister to let her have these traditional rites of passage while she is still a senior in high school. They sat my sister down and began to tell her what we could do if these events get cancelled. First event coming up is prom. My parents told her that they were ordering some prom decorations like balloons and streamer. They would clear the furniture out of the spare room had have a prom for her there. The room would be decorated, there would be a speaker for her to have full control over what music she wants to play. Her date would be allowed over and they would have their prom memories. Next is the solution for graduation. My parents told her that they were ordering a cap and tassel so she can have some sort of graduation pictures. There will be decorations and cakes, but the celebration would only have family present.
These solutions were not ideal to my sister, but we are not in ideal times. She still clung onto the hope that she could have these events with her classmates like classes before hers did. Understanding the situation, we have all found ourselves in, she agreed to my parents’ ideas because if the school does cancel the event, she can at least form her own memories at the home prom and graduation.
The audience to my parents’ ideas is my sister. My parents were trying to make the best out of a bad situation by giving her some semblance of tradition. The pathos in this situation is the strong emotion my sister feels about not being able to participate in Senior traditions. My parents appealed to her emotions by offering the closest thing allowed to those traditions. The ethos in the situation is the moral values of keeping everyone safe by staying at home. Staying at home is the logical reasoning of the logos as well. All three elements helped to persuade my sister into agreeing that having the events at home is the safest way and still allows her to create memories of the traditional event.