Kickin' & Screamin'

I skipped June, and almost skipped July. And I’m not just referring to the fact that I didn’t write during those months….but the months just feel “skipped.” Right? Where is time going? In one way….time is dragging by during these hard times. Day after day of the same thing….hearing of more COVID cases, enduring the “masks or no masks” debate….will school start? Will the world ever fully reopen? But in another way, the time is flying by. Yesterday was March….I swear it was just yesterday. Where did the summer go?

I woke up this morning with my teacher friends on my mind. Heavily on my mind. My closest friends are the ones I taught with. I felt their pain in the spring when the world shut down, and I feel their anxiousness today. The Friday before returning to school. OH, how I remember that feeling. In every “normal” year that I taught school, all 23 of them, this “last weekend” of summer brought on such a mixture of emotions, it would almost make me physically sick. My body couldn’t decide how to feel. Anxious, most definitely. Excited, of course. Sad to see summer end….absolutely. Nervous? Heck yes. I don’t care who you are….any teacher that says they’re not nervous at the beginning of a school year is lying. Liar Liar, pants on fire.

But those years were “normal” years for me. And yes–I feel the need to put quotation marks around the word NORMAL….for, who the heck even knows what that is anymore?? I retired before the world went crazy. I didn’t have to teach virtually to students who didn’t understand what was going on…students who just wanted to return to school to see their teachers and friends. Students who are now wondering if anything about this coming school year will even come close to falling under the “normal” category.

So, my teacher friends are feeling that “last weekend of the summer” knot of nerves in their guts today, with a 1000% increase of anxiousness, not knowing what in the world is going to happen. Trying to be prepared for every possible scenario, having no clue which one will play out. Superheroes. They are all freakin’ superheroes.

As my readers know, I love to people watch, and….well, I love to eavesdrop and listen to people as well. And I’ve found that the best conversations can often be overheard at the grocery store. Maybe it’s the desperation to talk to other humans in these trying times….but here lately I’ve noticed the increase of conversations in the checkout line. Yesterday, my subjects were two Moms…discussing the upcoming school year. The conversation started as one Mom complimented the mask that the second Mom was wearing. The fabric had little green aliens on it, and the Mom explained that she had made several of them for her child to wear to school this year. The others, she told, included Spongebob, and Superman. She said that she was just trying to make lemonade out of lemons….that, if her son had to wear masks to school, she wanted them to be fun. Something his friends would like.

The other Mom didn’t seem to share the same positive outlook. I could almost hear the “Wah Wah Wah” Debbie Downer music in the background as she spoke of how “stupid” everything was….how it was stupid for the schools to even try reopening, because they’re just going to shut right back down within a few weeks. She went on to say that she did, actually, understand how hard it must be for the teachers….making plans that they might not get to implement….having hopes of a “normal” that probably isn’t going to happen. She ended her horribly depressing monologue with “teachers are damned if they do, and damned if they don’t.”

Positive, alien-mask wearing Mom number one looked stunned. I pretended to pick out a candy bar near the checkout line beside them, just to hear what was said next. And I’m so glad I did.

She replied, “I think I’d rather say that all of us, teachers, students and parents–everyone, are blessed if we do, and blessed if we don’t.”

Debbie Downer chuckled and said “well, we’ll see!” and the conversation ended. She didn’t get it. The words of the other Mom didn’t sink in with her like they did me. I decided to put the Snickers bar back down (very reluctantly….I really wanted that thing) and I spoke to positive Mom over the counter, through my mask, and told her…. “Hey….I like that. Blessed if we do, blessed if we don’t.” I guess I gave away the fact that I had been listening to their conversation, but I didn’t care. She needed a kudos for that positivity that so many of us have misplaced.

She smiled at me. I knew….though those little green aliens on her mask covered her mouth. I could see it in her eyes.

The kids might get to go back to school for a few weeks before the state of our world makes it to where they all have to go back home, to virtual learning. They might make it to Christmas. They might make it all year. The school year might seem so chaotic at first, that everyone doubts it will work for more than a week. Or it might go smoother than anyone ever imagined. You don’t know. I don’t know. And I can promise you the teachers don’t know. But they are working their tails off to make sure every base is covered to make it the best situation possible.

If you are having anywhere NEAR a “normal” day….you are blessed. If you’re not in the hospital right now, you are blessed. If you’re not making funeral arrangements for a loved one right now, you are blessed. If you have a home and food to eat, you are blessed. If you have a family that loves you, you are blessed. If you have children who are going back to school soon, in whatever capacity, you are blessed.

If you are a teacher, you are BLESSED. God called you to do one of the most important jobs on this earth. And NOPE–you never dreamed that a year like this would exist during your career….but it’s happening, and you are tackling it. YOU’VE GOT THIS.

Blessed if we do, Blessed if we don’t.

Whatever decision you make….whatever crisis arrives, there’s going to be something to be thankful for….something God has blessed you with.

Embrace it.

We’ve got this….and to my teacher friends, Godspeed.

Wash your capes and get them ready for your return to school on Monday, because YOU, my freinds, are SUPERHEROES.