Different Not Bad
June 3, 2020
This post was written in the summer of 2020 during lockdown.
It feels like all the sudden, the reality of the fall is hitting me.
This has been in so many ways the longest yet shortest summer… and I want desperately for things to just, be normal again.
Not happening, obviously.
Usually around this time, I am getting back from trips planned, family visited. I am itching to get back to my computer, because the beginning of the school year brings so much excitement! I LOVE the first day of school!! New dreams and hopes and plans. I love putting into place all the fun things I learned from the semester before, and things I picked up from the books I finally had time to dig into.
The beginning of this school year may feel different.
But I am trying with all of my might not to associate different with bad.
There are incredible technological advances that make online learning, hybrid learning, distance learning, distance working, not only possible but incredibly powerful. I have guests coming into my classes from all over the place that would have never been able to be there physically, but it is now possible. And our openness to inviting people into our communities and spaces virtually has exploded over the past 4 months. The sharing of information and ideas has, arguably, never been stronger.
This isn’t to say that I think we should enter a world where we live in some half-zombie state from looking at a computer screen all day and we embrace distance living for good.
But, what I am saying is that even though the next semester may be different, it doesn’t have to be bad.
TAKE ACTION
So, what I am trying to do is constantly remind myself of the positive things that have come out of this time, and what this time has made me realize.
I am reminding myself that there WILL be a time when I am not home this much again, and what will I miss? There are plenty of things that will not be missed... but really, there are a few things I will miss! I will miss eating a freshly made lunch most days, instead of cold food from a lunch box passing as a lunch. I will miss not having to worry about walking 5 blocks to work if it is hailing.
Although, ironically, I used to be slightly annoyed about my 5 block walk, and now, I would welcome it back as though it were the crowning glory of my day.
Two questions:
What has this experience taught you that you want to carry into your new “normal?”
What has this experience taught you that you don’t ever want to forget?
Here are my answers…
I want to continue pickling vegetables. Why did I ever tell myself that was too time consuming? So easy and so delicious. And, I want to continue to imagine ways to innovate learning and use technology, even when the world isn’t demanding it.
More than anything, I don’t want to forget how much I miss so many small things. Eye contact, the 5 block walk, even in hail, walking up the stairs to my office, recycling the energy of those around me. Sure, there are big things that this experience taught me I missed, but, I think I would have told you I would have missed those before this ever happened. Like, traveling and performing and listening to live music. Those are obvious. But what are the small things, when you’re wrapped up in the chaos of "go go go again" in 9 months, that you want to remind yourself you’d miss if they disappeared again, overnight?
Things may never be exactly the same. And that’s okay.
As long as we remember that different doesn’t have to mean bad.
♡
