100 days

We got an email today that Fletcher will soon be celebrating the 100th day of school.  When I read that email I was overcome by a wave of memories.  I remembered sitting in Fletcher’s room on the early days of the school year that came to him via screen.  I remember his teacher talking about counting up to 100 and placing straws in calendar placeholders. Planning for the days ahead of them.  

100 days of school is normally worthy of celebration, but this year we should have a parade.  A float for the virtual kids.  A float for the hybrid kids.  A float for the in person kids.  A float for the parents. And the Grand Marshals at the end — our educators. And lining the streets?- all of us. 

This year has been so.. nope, not going to say it, I won’t say unprecedented.  Doh! I said it.  You hear it everywhere and it’s easy to say. A friend pointed out the other day that word is a trigger and I couldn’t agree more.  This past year had been unlike anything we’ve seen before and I hope unlike anything we see again.  But let’s stop with the superlatives. Let’s lean in to these times— complain about the crap, celebrate the good and stop looking for “normal”.

What is “normal”?  And why do we have to go back to it? Not everything in the “before-Covid” life was great.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m ready to drink an overpriced glass of wine at a sports bar.. so maybe some things can go back to normal.  But I digress, so hear me out.  What if we stop looking for a return and start looking at what the future could be?  What if we learned that we can work virtually as good as we can in person?  What if we teach our children that adapting and flexing, even when it’s not exactly what we want works ok too?  What if we learned that “we, before me” helps us all, and makes us feel good as individuals as well? What if we stopped trying to return to normal and just lived, hoping and creating better days ahead. 

I have plenty of days where I wish things had simply progressed  as expected, but they didn’t.  And wishing they did doesn’t make me feel any better.  So this is to remind me that looking forward is better than looking back and to embrace the “new normal “.  Ew, nope, also a trigger.  Better description to come.  :)

xo