This past week marked a year since the world shut down. I remember walking out of school with my kids on March 12th and I just knew I wasn't going to see them again. Looking back on that moment I wish I had thought to give them books and supplies to take home but everything was a blur. I remember driving home and thinking, we don't have a coffee pot. I remember this feeling of waiting for this dark cloud to come down and envelope us. We ran a few last minute errands, ordered a coffee pot on Amazon, and went to City Girl for a last dinner out. City Girl is always a place we go to during snow storms to be cozy in Inman and it seemed like the right place to be on that night. Everyone was somber and scared. When I think back to that weird time I just remember this feeling of chaos. No one knew anything, no real information was coming out from the White House, and it was a whirlwind.
As I look back on this year, I know I am lucky to be able to say that it was actually one of my best years. I can't believe how fast paced my life was before the shut down. There were some days that I barely had thirty minutes of free time. I was multi-tasking all the time, thinking about lessons in the car, etc. The shut down allowed me to refocus on myself and taking care of myself. I've loved all the extra time with JO and the kittens. I loved exploring new places in a quest to find safe ways to enjoy the outdoors. I've also really loved teaching this year and I've learned a lot of valuable lessons that I will bring with me next year. This book is absolutely beautiful and it really encapsulates much of how I have felt.
I am also sad though. I guess disappointed might be a better word. I'm disappointed that, as a country, we couldn't pull it together to do the right things. Someone was recently complaining about the limited entries into stores. Seriously? That is impacting your life so much that you can't adjust? With the excitement of vaccines, comes the worries that some states that are opening back up are going to bring down all of the progress by letting variants get out of control. I really thought when this whole thing started our country would respond the way they did after 9/11. It was very much the opposite, but I think a lot of that had to do with who was in charge. Just look at this picture of a restaurant in my neighborhood this week.
It's fitting that as we approached the one year mark, I got my first dose of the vaccine! On Monday I headed over to a CVS a few towns over. I can't say enough great things about the work CVS is doing. The whole operation was so smooth, although it was a bit odd to get vaccinated in the cosmetics aisle of a CVS. I started crying when I got my shot. It started hitting me that I could really hug my dad in six weeks time. Up until now we've done super quick hugs but soon I can give him a giant hug. (I spent the rest of the week dealing with some side effects- mild cold symptoms, muscle aches, and some sweating/freezing moments. I also couldn't believe how unbelievably hungry I was. I guess my body is working hard!)
to a walk around Fresh Pond....
to a patio night on Noir...
and random Christmas Tree spotting
and a patio lunch in Boston (it's nice that it's starting to feel safer in Boston because we've definitely missed visiting)
we definitely felt more excitement this week than we had in a long time.
It was also a great week for our country....
And for my Huskies (fingers crossed they stay Covid free for the tournament)
But a bad week for our state. I've really been feeling down about how teachers are being vilified. It is not our fault that the country did not do a better job from the get go of making going back to school safely a priority.
Also, instead of looking at the past year as a complete waste, let's think about what actually worked because there were things that worked and kids that thrived and we shouldn't forget about that.
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