Carona-who?

Two weeks ago Covid-19 entered my world.  Until then, it was someone else's problem somewhere else in the world. The problem belonged in a distant land with distant people who we prayed for non-specifically.  And then...then it invaded my space.  

As a middle school AP, my worst fear has always been that a school shooter would invade my campus. While that is still a fear that I have, I can honestly say that I never saw this threat coming.  It snuck up on us with every disregard for common courtesy and decency.  It had no care for those who would have been going to prom this weekend. It did not care that as educators we had to stop accepting hugs from our students. We had to explain why this was and try to alleviate fears without hugging them--an impossible task.  It didn't care that those of us with compromised immune systems live in fear of something like this, and as much as we wanted to crawl into bed and hide, we couldn't do that because the kiddos needed us. 

Despite all of this, however, we may have seen one of our finest hours as educators in this state. We literally had it dropped in our laps at 3:30pm on a Friday that we would not be coming back to school for two weeks and we needed to come up with a plan to help our students continue learning.  We did what any educator worth his salt would do--we came up with a plan and executed it with aplomb. In a matter of hours on Monday, plans were made, copying began, and packets were made. On Tuesday and Wednesday we created a drive-thru campus where parents were able to pick up assignments and lunch for their children without ever leaving the car.  We did what Americans do best in times of crisis. We put on our big girl pants and had a parking lot party while we worked.  We played greatest hits, we line danced, and we laughed. And then we said goodbye. We said goodbye not knowing if this would be it for our year or if we would see each other again in a few weeks.  

Since Coronovirus entered our lives we have learned to look at everything with suspicion. Do I shake hands for this meeting? Will my eye doctor put on a mask to do my exam? Will I look crazy if I ask him to? Do I care? That person over there coughed. Do they have it? Or is that pollen making them cough?

I told someone last night that I refused to live my life in fear. I'm going to keep on telling myself that and maybe I'll begin to believe it after awhile.  

Until next time,

Liz