Reflection in the midst of COVID-19

I’m feeling like I need to be reflective this week. Those of you who are kind enough to read this blog on a regular basis know that I am currently teaching remotely, from home due to the pandemic. You also know that recently I, along with several other colleagues, have been tasked to come back to school to help support staff that are working at school everyday. By the time this post “goes live” I will be just a few hours shy of completing my first week of going to school Mondays and Tuesdays to provide that support in the morning (before instruction starts) and the afternoon (when I’m finished teaching). The total amount of time I’m supporting is about 30 minutes, 20 minutes in the morning and about 10 minutes in the afternoon. This total amount of time is equal to my commute to and from school. You may be thinking; that sounds a little crazy, a waste of my time. I thought so too, initially. Then I started thinking about the people that are working at school everyday. Some of them I know well others I barely know. I started thinking about what it must be like to have to get up, get ready, leave their families, and go to a place that, as I write this, has just found out that someone has tested positive for COVID-19. It was only a matter of time before this was going to happen yet we march on as if nothing is happening at all. Decisions have consequences and a person testing positive for COVID-19 in a school can have dangerous ripple effects. 

Decisions, even the smallest ones, have consequences that can be a positive force which takes me back to why I’m actually writing this post. As I performed my morning and afternoon duties this week I thought about my decision to come to terms with having to be at school; if my contribution is helping those who are going to work everyday, “just a little,” it is worth the 30 minute commute I make both Monday and Tuesday.