Oh, it feels so good to be back!

Oh, it feels so good to be back!  Last March, I used the writing challenge as a way to mentally prepare myself for a few months of quarantine.  I knew that I would be quarantined until the end of May, and in the back of my mind, I worried that quarantine would last until the end of the school year (the end of June) and into summer vacation.  My worries came true, but I was ready after a month of writing during the actual month that COVID-19 shut down the nation.

Now, it is March 2021.  Vaccines are becoming more available to people.  Children are making their way back to the classrooms.  The government has someone new in charge.  The nation seems to be getting healthy.  I am a very optimistic person (ask my teaching colleagues and family), but EVEN I KNOW that although things seem to be getting better, we, as a nation, still have a long way to go.  I am going to use this month to help prepare me for the great changes and healing that is going to come over the next few months.  I am even going to sprinkle in my optimism and hope into my blog posts for March 2021 and prepare myself for an awesome end of the school year and a summer vacation to remember.

The quarantine of the last twelve months has been difficult.  COVID-19 has been awful as it has taken many of our loved ones or has put many of them in the hospital.  We have longed to hug our family members and friends, especially the ones that are older and more fragile.  We’ve longed for the day that we can go out to a restaurant or to a movie.  But, the quarantine has also brought some positive changes.  It has slowed life down.  Families are eating dinner together again.  Children are realizing the importance of school and many even miss the classroom.  A few students even found successes during remote learning (with less homework, my eighth grade daughter started to bake, is writing a book – over 200 pages in, has started boxing to stay in shape for her team sports, and started sewing her own clothes).  The fast pace life that many families had with sports, music, and dance, slowed down and because of this, the quarantine created more family time.  The quarantine has made us appreciate all of the good things that we had before it started.  We need to remember these things as we go forward.

March 2021 of writing is going to be awesome.  I won’t lie.  I have been waiting impatiently for it to start.  I have been writing down ideas of what to write about.  And after a VERY, VERY busy six months of hybrid teaching, I am ready to reconnect with my writing.