It seems like a lot longer given all that has happened in that time, but it has been just less than three months since the COVID-19 pandemic really began causing havoc in America, leading to the shutdown of businesses, schools, sports, concerts and just about everything else other than grocery stores and hospitals.

In that time, our high school seniors went from doing things seniors normally do in the early spring — planning for prom and counting down the remaining days with friends before going their separate ways — to it all being over before anyone even realized it was.

Through no fault of their own, this year’s senior class was deprived of rites of passage like not only prom, but a spring sports season, final concerts for music students, receiving and signing each other’s yearbooks and even getting to say a proper good-bye to teachers, coaches and staff who may have made a real difference in their lives and education.

But at least one end-of-year tradition — perhaps the most important one — has been preserved, albeit in a rather different way and that’s commencement.

For months, school administrators had been planning, then replanning when things changed only to have to yet again make more plans when circumstances shifted once more. That not only included whether students would return to school and when and how it would work if they did, it also included whether and when and how to hold a commencement ceremony.

As we reported weeks ago, the local superintendents vowed to leave no stone unturned to give the graduating seniors as close to a traditional commencement ceremony as could be had while still adhering to restrictions on large gatherings. We don’t know how many ideas administrators kicked around before settling on some pretty creative solutions.

At Midd-West, they held a “drive-in” graduation. In Juniata County, both high schools will have ceremonies involving a parade of sorts at Port Royal Speedway next Tuesday. And in Mifflin County, the administration is taking advantage of the district-owned roadway in front of the high school building to have a processional over three nights — the last of which is tonight.

None of those solutions is perfect, of course, but it shows the dedication of the stewards of our local school districts and the importance of, as best they can, giving the Class of 2020 their moment of glory they’ve worked so hard to achieve.

We applaud the, at times, herculean efforts of our local school administrators for doing what they could to honor the graduates.

We also could not be prouder of the Class of 2020. Despite the upheaval the past three months has brought, we know that years from now, your class will be remembered as the group that persevered through one of the most challenging times in our nation’s history.

We can’t think of anything that could have better prepared you to take on the world than that.