A Cabrillo Grad Looks Back

By Ronald Kaplan

Cabrillo College had its first ever “virtual graduation” online Friday May 22 at 4 p.m. for 2,005 students — including me.

The semester started out innocently enough on January 27 with the usual crowds on campus, meaning crowded and everywhere; in the bookstore, in the cafeteria, at the student center, in classes, finding parking spaces, walking to classes, utilizing restrooms, meeting and greeting, yelling and screaming, and hugging and kissing.

And all of this in a pre-covid-19 world, an innocent and naïve world in a place and time we weren’t aware of, reminiscent of pre 9/11 when we were untouched seemingly, and you might say, unaffected by terrorism on the shores of other countries that we had not been experiencing on our own shores. Well those days are over now…

On Monday March 16, we began to meet as a class online. At first there was hope that we would return to campus, but alas we did not and it is uncertain when the campus will in fact open up again.

I do believe that this world event will not only change what it means to get a college education, but how we get it. It will disrupt the institutions of education and in the process will discover its values and a reevaluation in the changed economic landscape of what college should be.

Will community colleges become the shopping malls of present day with the disruption in retail and American’s consumer habits? Will it reinvent itself? Will people reskill to work at home going forward? These are some of the questions the community of education will and should ask itself.

We have come to that proverbial “fork in the road” and as Yogi Berra would say that when we get there, “to take it.”

I recall hearing a lecture by Buckminster Fuller some 40 years ago when he spoke of telecommuting. Something I couldn’t quite get my head around at the time, but now it all makes sense.

I am very glad however that we had a chance to meet in person in class, as a group of classmates before becoming virtual classmates.

The upshot of engaging online for me with the “Shelter in Place” protocol and my four courses is that it became a welcome distraction from literally “hanging around the house.” It gave me structure and kept me busy, stimulating my mind and introducing me to the joy I would find in writing.

In my coursework I read that those who go into the profession of journalism find something to love about it. What I found was a rediscovery of writing and a platform to express myself and my thoughts on politics, student life, and a chance to impart what I hope was a bit of wisdom on life and lessons learned with the perspective of age and life experience for those in their own formative years as The Cabrillo Voice Editorial/Opinion writer.

You can find a number of those pieces online at thecabrillovoice.com, The Voice of Cabrillo College for all of Santa Cruz County.

Place and time: Timing does play a role that can shape our destiny, whether it is the people we meet, the subjects or information we come in contact with, or the opportunities that present themselves by simply showing up.

Best of all, I’ve made some new friends, and in journalism, have found a new love of writing.

So, thank you Cabrillo College. I will miss my classmates and my instructors, even virtually. And as Shakespeare would say: “Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be ‘morrow.” Now I can say from experience, that returning to education no matter what shape or form, is an invitation to a good ‘morrow.

cabrillo.edu