Sometime mid-spring 2020, administration allowed faculty and staff to return to our building to retrieve personal belongings and teacher resources abandoned so abruptly when Covid forced school closures March 13.
The four large totes I carried home contained the books and binders I needed to carry my classes through June, as well as two items I needed to carry myself through June and beyond.
The first was my joke-a-day calendar.
The second was a blue wooden sign.
Suffice it to say I needed a good laugh. So did my kids, those in my Google Meets and those in my house. A good corny joke makes even cynics smile. For Christmas this year, one of the gifts I gave my family was the gift of yearlong laughter: joke, pun, and cartoon calendars. Here’s hoping 2021 has more to smile about than 2020.
I also needed a lifeboat. My 15” x 5” sign is blue, its brown letters accented with cream. At school, it stood atop the filing cabinets behind my desk, a backdrop to every day’s lesson. At home, it stands between my monitors, a reminder of every day’s goal.
Life isn’t about surviving the storm but about learning to dance in the rain.
Suffice it to say, 2020’s been one colossal shitstorm and I’m sick, sick, sick of being dumped on.
You too, I bet.
Want to dance?
My Name was Supposed to be Elizabeth Ann 