I saw a meme as I was scrolling mindlessly through Facebook that said, "This was our last normal week." Wow! Little did we know this time last year, we would be embarking on the last normal week of the foreseeable future. How could we have predicted that all of the normal things that we did, all of the whining we did about our problems, the plans that we made for the week or weekend.... would be the last time that we did?
That just blows my mind! This time last year, I was excited about slicing and school. I was making plans for the weekend, for Spring Break, and for Summer. The most exciting plans were made for a family reunion at Cedar Point amusement park for June... the first time in at least a decade that we all could go. My slices were about my kids in school, and my kids at home. At least they were at the beginning of the week! As the week progressed you could see and feel the change in my writing, my emotions, and what was going on in the world around us. Little did I know what was coming!
As a teacher, we talk about history and how problems shaped the landscape of our country or even our world. To be living through that history is quite another story. We have made history in the last year and continue to make it as we navigate our way through this pandemic. It causes me to stop and ponder how we will be remembered? How will the people of the US be written about in the history books? Will the pictures and snippets of information reflect what really happened or will it be a sensationalized version?
I know that in our last normal week, we took things like family, friends, social lives, and toilet paper for granted. I mean seriously I could never have imagined the pure joy you feel when the toilet paper came back into the store or when you spot Lysol wipes! It was, and is, like winning the lottery!! I hope that we have learned the importance of family, of friends, of seeing people's faces, and the strength that we gather from those things. I hope that as we embark on this next year of the pandemic, that we don't forget the lessons that we learned, the joy we felt over the simple things, that when there is a will there is a way. I hope we take away a feeling that as a collective society we can face hard things but come out the other side with a resilience and empathy that hasn't been seen since war times. That this pandemic can make us the next Greatest Generation.
I too hope for a new normal after this year. The pandemic also highlighted the inequities that have always existed in our economy, education and health care systems. Yes, as Amanda Gorman said, "History has its eyes on us." Thank you for slowing me down and giving me time to reflect on this past year.
ReplyDeleteI was just scrolling through my "this time last year" photos a minute ago. Eery, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteYes, the anniversaries are beginning. I'm not sure I'm prepared for reliving the year, especially since we haven't come to the end of that story.
ReplyDeleteYes, March 11th was when our school shut down. I tell my kids you might always look back and say I was in high school during the pandemic. This community definitely became a support for me last March and the reason I came back.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you framed the historic changes with a new sense of appreciation for the small things that we have been missing this past year. I planned to post on the same topic today because a year ago, I was on vacation with seven friends -- just before the pandemic restrictions hit. How fortunate I feel that we got to spend that time together in such a relaxed way!
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