The Coronacation Diaries, Episode 81

Photo by Aw Creative on Unsplash

All Things Winding Down Into Their Last Days... 

Things are winding down. Dad should be transferred out of the hospital tomorrow and into rehab, if his COVID results ever come through. He is walking laps around the hospital floor, cracking jokes with all of the nurses, and trying to not be bored out of his mind. When the occupational therapist comes, Dad always announces that he's retired and doesn't want an occupation. When the nutrition aide comes and asks what he wants for lunch, Dad always requests scotch. He's got a wisecrack for everyone, and he is so, so bored. He's also in awe --we all are-- at how close this whole event was to something truly catastrophic. A few more hours, a few more days...he could have had a full-on stroke and be paralyzed or worse. Instead, he's got a bad-ass scar and a few bruises, and a whole new understanding of the last few months. His last few days have opened up a whole new chapter for him --and for us, as his family.

The last day of Bath High School is tomorrow. It's been a strange year, a year of rebuilding, but also a year of loss. I'm not sad to be finished. I'm not sad to be done with the "fully remote" teaching. I have my doctorate in educational technology, and I can tell you that I absolutely do not believe that fully online courses are good for our students or good for our teachers. I can create thoughtful lessons for students, but when I'm not there to tease or nag or encourage or just stand next to them, it's incredibly difficult to motivate and engage. I hope that we can somehow get back to some sort of face-to-face in the fall. Whatever it looks like, for the mental health and physical health of us all, we need to be back in a classroom. These last few days have been a slog of grading and emails and phone calls and text messages and just hoping --hoping-- that students will come through and earn credit. This school year needs to be over.

My last day as union secretary might very well be Monday. Out of the blue, someone is running against me for my position. I've never been challenged; no one wants the mundane task of sorting through the contract language year after year, and spending hours negotiating for benefits and working conditions for our staff members. But now, someone wants my position. It might be the end of an era, of 10+ years working for and with staff members, mentoring them and sitting in meetings with administration, and fighting for what is best for students and staff. I hope that I don't lose my position. I don't want these to be my last days on the team. But I have to acknowledge the very real possibility that I might be written out of the leadership team, and that the staff might want different representation. These last few days have been soul-searchingly hard.

These last few days have been hard on my family, too. They are displaced and out of sorts. They are sick of pasta and sick of each other. Since Dad is on the mend, we plan to head home from Florida in just a couple of days. Driving back home, after being down here for a lot longer than we'd planned, will be a celebration, of sorts. We desperately wanted to leave Michigan a week ago. Now, we are ready to go home, to get back to our beds and our pets and our familiar routines.

And finally, with the shelter-in-place being lifted, the Coronacation Diaries are in their last few days. When I started this journey, I naively thought that it would be just a few weeks. A nanowrimo of sorts, blogging throughout the pandemic, trying to entertain the masses with the annoyances of it all. Instead, it became something bigger, a force that has driven me throughout these past 12 weeks, forcing me to reflect and to put into words what it all has meant to me and to those I love.

None of these stories are over, yet. But they are all winding down into their last few days.

And I am looking forward to new chapters, whatever they might hold.