Reviewing a year-long learning curve

Today my husband is eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, but I'm still ten months too young, even though the phrase too young should not apply to someone with such cranky hip joints. He's also eligible to receive the next stimulus check while I apparently make just a tad too much money (if that's not TMI). Never thought I'd complain about being too rich and too young. I don't mind not receiving the stimulus check, but I would really like to get the vaccine sooner rather than later.

A year ago at this time I was getting ready to drive north to start my spring break with a visit to the grandkids and then drive south to see Dad, but then I got sick and delayed my trip south by one day and then Dad's assisted-living facility went on lockdown, and now here we are a year later still waiting to reschedule that postponed visit. Dad is fully vaccinated and his facility is opening up next week for limited visits, but I have to wait until I'm vaccinated.

A year later, I can still recall that deep inner panic that hit when the Powers That Be announced that we would have less than a week to switch all our classes to online learning. I don't know whether I slept at all that week but I remember frustration and blurry eyes and even some tears and yelling. Online learning was a slog but we somehow survived, and then summer was a different kind of slog, trying to adapt each class to several different possible teaching scenarios, a high-stress situation that put me (briefly) into the hospital. And now, again, here we are a year later wondering what the fall semester will look like and dreaming of the day when we can burn all our masks.

What have we learned in the past year? I can attest that resilience is both essential and exhausting and that technology can create as many problems as it solves. It's true that we've been more fortunate than some, but I'm no longer surprised when students and colleagues wear that shell-shocked look of someone who has walked through a post-apocalyptic hellscape. I'm tired of hearing myself say When this is all over, but when this is all over we need to devote some serious time to self-care, preferably on a beach far from the reach of Zoom.

Meanwhile we keep rolling with the punches, being resilient, flexible, nimble, agile, engaging, rigorous, and a whole lot of other adjectives that have been pounded into our heads over the past year. The red-winged blackbirds have returned to the wetlands so spring is on the way, and one of these days we'll join them in calling out our joy over a fresh new season of hope. Today, though, I'm just counting the days until I become eligible for a shot in the arm.