A Day In The Life

Done. We made it. A year like no other. We did it. It’s over. Can you believe it. These were the words heard throughout the halls on that last day of school this year. A year unlike any other. A year in which a pandemic gripped our lives, changed the world we had known, struck fear into many of us. A year year that began with so many unknowns. In school, teaching in person, from August 2020 until June 17, 2021. A year in which there were no rules and regulations, desks partitioned off with plexiglass, lunch eaten within the classrooms, masks worn all day by students and teachers.

I don’t allow myself to think back to the beginning of the school year, as the days were filled with tension, with fear of getting sick, fear of being quarantined. I wore a mask and shield those early months, spent as much of my break time as I could outdoors, stayed away from teachers outside of my grade. Made it to January unscathed, then January came, and the opportunity to get vaccinated was on the horizon. I was able to get vaccinated , leaving school in the middle of the day along with two other teachers, thankful to have the opportunity. My relief after that first vaccine brought me to tears. Months of built up tension day after day, now finally feeling there was hope for the rest of the year to take a turn in a positive direction. The mood within the halls lifted, as each day someone else shared they had “gotten the shot”- the halls buzzed with “when’s your 2nd?” mine is….

By May everyone’s mood lifted, all still cautious, wearing masks, but that deep rooted feeling of fear that had been so pervasive at the beginning of school began to wane. We made it. Some of the new routines in school turned out to be better than old ones, we’re calling them “Covid Keepers” and will be instituted into the routines for next year. I would rather focus on the positive things that came out of this past year than the negatives, the bonds forged with the kids in my class, the learning and growth of the children despite the differences this year held. We did it. We made it. Not looking back, just looking forward from here.

The night of our faculty end of year dinner…good times…