What a Mess
As I reflect on the past twelve months, I actually feel like it's been a bit of a blur or feels like it has gone by comparatively quickly. That is probably because there has been so little to personally punctuate the year or moments that make it feel like we have done very much.
The year started with such promise. I turned 50 years old shortly after the calendar turned to 2020. Lola was finishing middle school, Oliver was finishing elementary school, there was, if not great "promise" to the year, much to look forward to. I was training to run an epic stage race in the Colorado Rockies in August, Lola was going to start high school(!) and Oliver was starting middle school. Then of course came the crash.
The transition to online learning was bumpy, it was hardly learning at all. The best we (parents) and they (teachers) could do was to keep some semblance of learning going. By the time the school district closed in mid-March, we were most of the way through the school year so I moderated my expectations about what the kids could actually do with a slap-dash online learning scenario and quickly accepted that what was left of the school year was lost. The scale of the crisis that struck was such that losing a few months of learning, review, and testing hardly seemed worth panic.
The start of a new school year in a remote environment was disappointing to say the least. We were under no illusion over the course of the summer that returning to in-person classes in the fall was going to happen. The treachery and selfishness of enough Americans was clear day after day that made it clear that some way other than individual actions was probably going to be necessary.
Mentally Lola probably did a better job with the transition to online learning than Oliver. Lola and I are introverts. Oliver is an extrovert. Both of them suffered intellectually. Despite a smoother system for delivering instruction remotely, there's simply no way that the momentum both of them had could be maintained. We are thankful that none of us has gotten sick and we refuse to take risks that may jeopardize our long-term health or lives for the "satisfaction" of spending time in close proximity to others.
Now, as we head into 2021, we all know it's going to suck just as bad as it has the last 9 months. But, we are hopeful that this vaccine business will be the solution. Certainly if we have to rely on the actions of individuals, then we are doomed. I would be surprised if the kids go back to school at all this year. Maybe some symbolic and useless partial days towards the end of the year. Maybe that can help those students such as Oliver begin to heal emotionally and socially.
Did I mention Lola started high school this year? On top of that transition, she's become a nightmare in the mornings. But more on that next time.