A year ago I posted this depressing photo on Facebook, revealing the view from the temporary home office where I taught my classes during the second half of last spring semester. Campus was closed down after spring break and I don't have the bandwidth to teach from my house in the woods, so I relocated to my husband's parsonage in Jackson and taught from the dining room, where the only interesting part of the view was a robin's nest where I watched chicks being fed and fledged throughout the spring.
I should have shared this bleak photo with my students Monday morning--maybe it would have shaken them out of their lethargy. Everyone is tired of the pandemic and overwhelmed with work and unwilling to participate in class, but look how far we've come! A year ago we couldn't be in the same room together, and students were either quarantined in their dorm rooms or trying to learn while sequestered at home, where they were surrounded by distractions, bedeviled by tech issues, or even located in time zones that made class attendance difficult.
Today we speak to each other with voices muffled by masks, but at least we're in the same room. Our case and quarantine numbers are minuscule, and vaccines will be available to all students right here on campus in the next couple of weeks. Sure, we're bummed about missing spring break, but sports events are happening again with a limited number of spectators, and in five weeks the semester will be OVER.
Next year will be different--we know this, though we don't know all the details. The 2021-22 academic calendar allows for breaks, and if there's one thing we've learned this year, it's that we all need breaks. Right now would be ideal, but I suppose I can wait a little longer. And we all need each other. When personal interactions were confined to a bunch of empty Zoom squares, hope was a dim glow in the distance that often seemed to be snuffed out. Today the light at the end of the tunnel is strong and bright, beckoning us onward.
The past is a bleak view out a small window, but from where I'm standing, the future's so bright we're gonna need shades.
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