First of all...it has been a long hiatus. I have not written since December of 2020. Where did 2021 go?
January 2021 had me in a pretty dark place. Teaching was the hardest it has ever been, we were all in "survival" mode, overwhelmed with several different cohorts in a hybrid model AND trying to work with fully remote students who were at home full time. I really didn't have the emotional bandwidth to write anything down. It was a difficult time. I was working on (and still working on) having a better shield between myself and all the secondary trauma we experience as teachers.
February I suffered a pretty serious concussion. Recovery was long, screen time was extremely limited. Limiting screen time, with everything happening on zoom and pretty much all instruction and grading needing to be done on electronic platforms made my recover even longer. I resented everything about my job and had a hard time finding any joy at all at work. Recovery in a noisy house with 3 kids was also difficult, and I found myself retreating from my family to a dark room on most evenings. It was hard to feel connected to anyone or anything.
In March, vaccinations started to roll out! We teachers were pretty frustrated not to be included as essential workers, but in the end we did get our vaccines earlier than the general public for my age group. I got mine just in time for April break so...
In April I took myself on a trip to Maui to visit my brother! I still wasn't over my concussion, and I had a feeling that a week in the sunshine away from screens would be a godsend, and it was. My family stayed in Vermont. But that trip, besides having an amazing time and reconnecting with my brother, I felt myself coming back to the light, slowly emerging from a dark place I had been in most of the winter.
After April break school was back "full time" (will still one fully remote day Wednesday). Everyone was getting vaccinated, we started making plans again, things were looking up. Somehow we made it to the end of the school year, and that felt like an accomplishment.
Summer was a joy! I started playing ultimate again, and found so much joy there. Reconnecting socially and being physically active again was medicine for my exhausted soul. We took the kids camping with friends, went on lots of mountain bike rides, had BBQs in backyards again! I even travelled to Denver for Nationals, and went out to restaurants and drank in bars. It was this huge release and feeling of freedom that felt so...liberating! In some places, we even stopped wearing masks for a hot minute there...
As summer wore on, Delta appeared, vaccine efficacy waned, and you know the rest. Schools went back in session full time (which was amazing! I loved it!). Fall went well, we didn't see too many spikes. Life was still far from normal, but school felt manageable, social events were able to take place, athletics were happening, we were establishing some kind of new normal. My kids played soccer in masks.The political climate was still hostile, and in backlash to BLM flags flying at our schools, we started to see Trump rallies at schools. My school was doing OK, but our middle school, and many middle and high schools across the country, were seeing unprecedented behavior problems and violence. My own children's elementary school made the news several times for out of control student behavior, including one student "destroying" a classroom so badly it couldn't be used for several days. As we tried to push on and get back to normal, it became more and more clear that the kids were NOT alright.
We made it the holidays in OK shape. Personally, I had an amazing vacation just staying at home, not traveling, spending lots of time with the family and kids. Maybe because this year we weren't forced into not leaving the state, it felt like a more empowering (and relaxing!) thought just to stay home and settle in. There wasn't much good snow (thanks climate change!) but we got out for some skiing and riding anyway.
Then, you know it...here comes omicron. I write today, on January 9th, amidst the biggest surge Vermont has seen yet. Omicron is circling, and it has been a difficult week. Positivity rate is up over 12%, schools are closing due to staffing shortages, and while we still haven't had covid yet, it seems like everyone around us does. I'll write more about that in my next post!
US Cases: 60,965,028
US Deaths: 859, 046
Vermont Cases: 76,673
Vermont Deaths: 483
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