This is first year that I did not have a first day of school.

Rolled out of bed wearing an amber Billabong shirt that I got second hand at school clothing swap in February. I kept that shirt on all day, only changing my bottoms to yoga leggings. I sat working on my couch, conversing with students and staff via email, facebook messenger, text, MS Teams, and Zoom. Got a lot done, moved the needle, made an impact.

Yay…but wow how anticlimactic.

It is not the same as being there. Fall and Spring are my favorite times of year at school. They are both full of new beginnings, full of possibility. We are trying so hard to bring that possibility, that hope to each and every new and returning student from home, while creating and enforcing new policies.

We are going to do it. And we are going to do it well. It is not easy task.
Now I get what my mom has been saying all summer. The kids need to be in school. Scaredy cat that I am, I thought this was outrageous for her to say, too dangerous and cavalier. But after today I realized how right she was.
How do you counsel a student well via email or text? You do the best you can, but you can’t look them in the eyes, see them as a three-dimensional sentient being, assist the whole person.

It’s so frustrating. People are not just words on a screen, or a camera’s flipped two-dimensional image. They are more. They are their lived experience, trauma, joys, sorrows, and strife.

We must get our country healthy again, so we can educate our children and young adults. Public education, access to advanced levels of education are hallmarks of the once successful democratic republic called the United States of America.

Sorry Mom, I missed the bigger point. I’m always focused on the small, scary details.

It’s my pesky evolutionary negativity bias doing it’s thing again. Let’s hope it doesn’t force me into the bushes again.