It's been a shit show of a year and it doesn't appear to want to slow down anytime soon. Pandemics, global house arrest, political unrest, societal upheaval, mother nature trying to clean up the mess and that is just the "big" world.
In our "little" world, we navigated the Spring break that never ended, literally still all home together 7 months later. We moved cross country during a pandemic, wearing masks into every stop, now the norm and legal requirement. Following arrows to direct traffic through the isles and standing on tape to tell us how close is close enough. Temperatures are taken when anyone has to touch you. We smile with our eyes now, because no one knows what the rest of our face is doing. We turn our whole head to hear when someone speaks because of the plexiglass wall protector between us and the inability to read lips through the mask. We stop in our tracks when another human comes our way, or step out into moving traffic, because it seems safer than being within breaths distance of someone. The way our eyes meet when someone near us coughs, spits, or sneezes and how we dodge them and think, "Seriously, why are you out in public?"
I have cancelled more plans, events, and stayed home more than ever in my life. We like the ease of not driving somewhere every day, save time meeting virtually instead of driving to a venue to work, meet, or educate. We all three collectively try to find a well lit, quiet, private cavern in our house to do our virtual business for hours on end and we wonder when we can have our "real" life back again, and what that will look like when we do.
It hasn't been easy on any of us. But damn if you, my boy, haven't handled it superbly. You left your last school at Spring break and never went back. Never got to say goodbye and you seemed unscathed. You couldn't see your extended family for months and we didn't leave our street for that matter, and you continued on without worry. You moved across the country, never worried about socially distancing yourself from an oncoming stranger nor complained about wearing a mask every time we left the comfort of the car. You contracted staff infection from not properly washing your hands, something the rest of the world is, or at least should be learning, but you were fearless. You moved right into your new house and slept soundly on the air mattress in your new room, until your belongings arrived and were unpacked and put in place. You aren't worried about not making new friends, you aren't afraid if they are carrying a virus, you just play and go about life like normal. When we decided for you, that we would stay home for online school this year, you didn't ask why or share any opinion. You just did what you had to do. You sit online for hours and your play is often online too unless we go on an adventure, and I worry about you, your posture, your health, your social skills, your eyes, but you worry not - this is just life. You wake up, watch your teachers on the computer, read your lessons on the computer, confirm you understood through online quizzes, submit homework on the computer, mark attendance at the computer, and correspond through the computer. I find it sad, lonely, and unusual and you find it normal.
I am grateful you have seen so many things before this and I pray this too shall pass soon - nothing lasts forever, the only thing constant is change, but I look at you in awe most days. I am resilient, but you my child, are something else. You go with the flow, you rise to the occasion, you make the best of a bad situation. You go on living.
Keep it up my little man child. When one day the responsibility shifts into your hands, continue to do these things.
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