Everything you couldn't say at the ceremony.

What to write

• The moment you first knew they'd get here, even if they didn't.
• The hardest stretch, and what they did about it.
• One piece of advice you actually followed yourself.
• What you were doing at their age, honestly.
• What you hope they don't lose on the way to whatever's next.

I watched the whole thing. Here's what I saw.

High school and college are different letters

A high school graduation letter is usually about leaving — a house, a routine, the version of them you've known daily. Write what you'll miss and what you trust them with.

A college graduation letter is about arriving — into work, debt, cities, adult decisions. Write what you wish someone had told you in that first year.

Or write it early, and let it wait

Some of the best graduation letters are written years in advance, by a parent or grandparent who wanted to say it while the feeling was fresh — or who wasn't sure they'd be in the photographs.

Write it whenever it comes to you. Choose the date it should open.