It's the End of the World As We Know It...and I Feel Fine?

Good morning world. As I sit here typing, I feel my head spinning. As far as I've come with my depression and anxiety, the events of the last week have left me mentally bereft. My brain is telling me to panic! at the corona, but I'm trying not to. I'm using all of my mental power to stay grounded and sane amidst events never before seen in my lifetime. Obviously, this is not the first outbreak of a disease the world has seen, but what caught me off guard was how quickly everything changed.

Just last week, I was having normal classes with my students. We were testing, joking, reading, and getting through the days. Our band and choir kids were counting down the mere days until their trip to Disney, for which they had worked so hard. Even Friday, our governor, Tim Walz, said that schools would remain open. That decree would change only two days later. I think the most concerning thing is that the students have two weeks off with no work not because things will return to normal but because they won't anytime soon. How long will I be teaching from a distance? I hate online classes, and now I have to try to run multiple for as long as this pandemic ensues.

All of this makes me anxious and tired...so....sooo...sooooooo tired. The weight behind my eyes says to nap, but I have to work my normal hours and try to figure out what to do with my students from afar. How do I keep them accountable? How do I make the learning mean something from home? Where do we go from here? Is this for a few weeks or the rest of the semester? Will we return to normalcy in the fall?

All the unknowns are the problem for me. Yet, no one has real answers because everything is subject to change.

Until then, we're all in this together, and that's how we'll get through it. As a teacher and a new mom, I can't help but feel apprehensive, but as Judy Garland sang, "We'll muddle through somehow."

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Ramblings of a Midwest Woman

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