Family
Locked Inside an Expanding Vacuum Beyond Shutdown Hearts While Considering Immediate Emotional Overflows Outside COVID’s Reach
Harsh medicine helps us overcome.
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The clock yelled at me. Get up it screamed! Every bone and muscle in my body sank into my mattress. But the first day of school, especially this year, was sacred.
Barriers and boundaries shattered in an instant.
It’s our family tradition. My wife and I take the girls to school. Our two precious rockets of energy. We woke them up and served them eggs, turkey sausage, and buttered toast.
Last year our tradition was broken along with hopes for a return to life before COVID-19. We took our annual first-day of school picture but our daughters went to their rooms for remote learning instead of joining their friends in a classroom.
Floodgates open and exuberance unbound, this year we decided to take a leap of faith. Our girls went back to school, a new school, a better school. Their new elementary and middle charter school is a Montessori(self-paced) type setting with only 300 students total. The average class size is sixteen students.
Masks are mandatory at their school right now but they are only required for the first thirty days. With the Delta variant ravaging our state, Florida, and a governor who doesn’t seem to care, I’m scared.
At home, there weren’t 298 other kids and a dozen teachers breathing around my girls. And I don’t know if you noticed but kids aren’t the best at keeping their mouths and noses covered. Add this to the fact that over half the kids at the school are under 12 years old and therefore unvaccinated is a concern I can’t ignore. At least the teachers are required to have their COVID vaccinations complete.
For more than a year our children experienced virtual school. I lost my lawn business at the beginning of the COVID quarantines last March 2020. Being on unemployment is humbling but I gained a treasured prize.
During the remainder of the 2020 school year and for the 2020/2021 school year I assisted my children with remote school and they both achieved honor roll acclaim.
