By Peg West
Grand Valley State University

Sentimentality is a time-honored emotion for graduating seniors, and Joseph VanArendonk was feeling that heavily as he approached his last week at Grand Valley State University. 

What sets VanArendonk and his peers apart is the unprecedented mix of emotions that comes from experiencing a lifetime milestone during the pandemic of a lifetime.

VanArendonk channeled those feelings by writing his first ever song: “An Original Song for the (COVID) Class of 2020.”

The piece came together in a weekend. As he wrote a song full of the sentimentality and sadness he was feeling, he also found himself thinking about the he response to the pandemic itself, the lack of social distancing he had witnessed just that day and the strife it is causing.

“The song is just really my internal monologue that rhymes,” said VanArendonk, a human resource management major who is also president of the campus student a capella group, Euphoria.

So the next day he and some his friends, using proper social distancing, of course, recorded scenes for the video about the recommended ways to handle the pandemic, providing a change of tempo in the song and a message: “Understand that you are not alone.”

The result is about three-and-a-half minutes of catharsis and reflection, as well as gratitude and a little levity.

And VanArendonk is looking forward with hope amid the uncertainty. “It lifted my spirits to see an actual date set (Oct. 10) for the postponed commencement. Seeing a solid date is something I have recently learned to value,” he said.