1.31.2021
It’s been an emotional day where I stand today. I live in Columbus, Ohio on the traditional lands of the Hopewell, Shawnee and Hopewell community. Today, our district sent out the notification that we can sign up for the Pfizer vaccine. Even though the process of signing up has not been a smooth one at all, this day still represents HOPE. Educators are finally giving the choice to receive the vaccine. As I typed these words all I can think of is family. I haven’t seen my family in 392 days. Yes, it’s true. They live in South America, miles and miles away. However, I always see them in December when I go home for the holidays. In 2020, that was not an option. I experienced for the first time in my life what it’s like to see the borders of your country close.
I’m not the only educator with a Pandemic story. My colleagues have their own story of sacrifices, resilience, trauma, nostalgia, transformation and grief. Behind a teacher, there’s a human being trying to comprehend all the changes coming at once. Behind a teacher, there’s a human being dealing with their own worries and stress. Every time I sit in front of my computer to deliver a optional virtual PD, I’m in awe of how educators show up for learning. Why in awe? Because teachers are learning everyday on the job. There’s a new decision every day. There’s flexibility and resistance because we are all humans. Teachers: what would this world be without them?
Where I stand today, it’s a day that brings the promise of a healthier tomorrow. It brings the hope that as we continue to sit 6 feet away from children desperately trying to connect with them in these new realities, that someday maybe the distance will be 3 feet. Where I stand today, I see teachers crying with frustration or jumping with joy. All feelings are welcome. All feelings are ok.
The purpose of this new section on my blog is to create a space to reflect, reimagine, rethink education, pedagogy and humanity in times of pandemic. These are historical times that one day people would study and read. How did we show up for one another? What did we say goodbye to? What did we decide to embrace as we witness the world changing right in front of our eyes? I don’t have the answers. I do have questions, observations, chronicles and reflection.
Where I stand today, I carry the words of Sonja Renee Taylor who wrote, “We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature.”
We are weaving a new world friends. I’m here to rethink. reimagine. rethink in community and in solidarity with all of you.
Photo by "My Life Through A Lens" on Unsplash