Dear Andrea in March 2020,
Right about now you are starting to feel pretty nervous about that weird virus that is happening in China and that you are starting to hear about in other places in the world. Because of VIPKid, you have heard more than most Americans about the virus there and the precautions the Chinese people have been taking. You are checking a dashboard with the numbers in the few spots where there have now been outbreaks starting and the exponential growth in numbers of cases is starting to freak you out a little bit. Just wait, it gets worse.
In a couple weeks, you will be hearing about crises in New York and Italy. You will be worried about Ramón’s family in Spain. You will start to worry about going to school and about the field trip you have planned to do the model UN fair with other students from around the school district. You will start to understand that sooner or later they will probably be closing the schools and having people stay home, like they did in other places of the world.
Then one Friday, you will go home planning to come back to school the next week, and find out an hour later that the governor has closed schools across the state. You will not be able to go into your classroom to grab anything for a few weeks. You will not know what you are supposed to do. The state will then issue a safer at home order which basically closes everything. It will be so weird. You will do your best to communicate with your students and provide some enrichment and learning opportunities in the best way you can. You will direct the students and families to the free lunches and the packets of work being given out for students to have something to do at home.
Your trip to Spain will be canceled. All the festivals and races and games and concerts and big events will be canceled too. Summer fun will consist of enjoying your balcony, taking long walks with the dogs away from other people, and learning to entertain yourself at home. Don’t worry though, although the virus does continue to spread and the death tolls rise, it doesn’t morph into some zombie producing virus. I know it’s weird but I know that you are kind of thinking it, so I thought I would put your mind at ease.
On the bright side, you will excel at interviewing online. It is probably because of your years teaching online, or maybe just because you have less social anxiety over the computer, but you will have great success in the interviews this Spring, with multiple job offers to choose from. Congratulations! Do not hesitate to grab the VILS coach position. It is just the right fit for you and you will LOVE working at Audubon and connecting with the network of Verizon Innovative Learning Schools.
Training for this new job will actually start this Spring for you. You will get lots of chances to meet your new principal and work closely with him to help envision how the grant program will be implemented at your new school. Over the summer, you will continue to have trainings throughout the week and work to think about. I think this is part of what will help you to feel productive and not too bored.
Fall and winter will see you working from home supporting teachers who are teaching virtually. In March 2021, we still don’t know if we will be returning to the school buildings at all this school year. It feels like science fiction and it is a lot of work, but we are getting through it.
You know how you always joke that you could be a hermit and be completely happy? Well, you will sort of get a chance to prove that theory this year. And, yep, staying home all the time and away from other people does agree with you. Not having to force yourself to go to a social event has been very liberating this year.
Yet, you know that things need to eventually get back to some of what used to be. We will have to go back to the school building. We will want to travel to Spain to see Ramon’s family. People will want to have concerts and festivals and dine in restaurants again.
Enter the vaccine. Andrea, I know you will feel a little nervous about taking the vaccine, but do it anyway. Listen to your sister and all the other doctors out there that are reading the medical journals and trusting the science.
It is March 1st, and the first day in the state of Wisconsin that teachers can get vaccinated. We went to do it today. Ramón and I both got the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. So far, so good.
So Andrea, you are taking the steps to helping end this pandemic. Let’s hope that by next March the narrative changes for the better and we can stop living this science fiction reality.
With love from Andrea
This post is a part of the 14th annual Slice of Life Story Challenge. After a few years away, I am challenging myself to write every day in March this year, along with an amazing community of other bloggers. You can find our writing linked up on the Two Writing Teachers blog.
In some ways it is hard to imagine it’s been a year, yet at other times, it seems like forever! I am sure March 13th will bring many memory posts.
It sounds like you had a busy spring even with the quarantine! I am fully vaccinated now, as of last week with Pfizer. I did not have any side effects with the first one but did have some with the second. Good luck!
Hi Andrea, I loved this reflexive voice you used speaking to your past self from the vantage point of being almost a year into the pandemic. Glad to hear you got the Pfizer vaccine today! If it makes you feel any better, my friend is a chemist who works at the plant in Michigan performing quality testing and I can’t think of someone I’d rather have ensuring that the vaccine is pure and uncontaminated. Here’s to a more normal March 2022!
I’ve been thinking a lot today about March of last year, too. It was fun to read the reflection as a letter to yourself. The movement from worry to adjusting to finding the happiness in being home, to looking towards going out again was a really nice arc to read. Thank you!
So glad that you have had your first dose of the vaccine. I loved the way you framed this post, gently instructing yourself from the future, as if you were your own older sister.
I too, have often joked about being a hermit, and I am handling things better than many as a result. But while I like spending a lot of time alone, I don’t like not traveling. The restlessness is mind-mushing.
Looking forward to your posts the rest of this month and beyond!