Thursday, March 26, 2020

The Corona Files: Episode Three

I've been calling my far-flung team this week, checking in on folks to let them know we've got their backs and such. Man of the people, and all that. One of my colleagues has kids the same age as mine, and we talked about what they're going through. He said he told his 18 year-old son that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond. With that in mind, I asked my own 18 year-old if she felt like making her G:TB debut. To which:

The author, my kidlet, of
whom I'm mad proud.
Senior year. I bet you remember yours fondly. Back at the tail end of summer, the prospect of My Senior Year stretched out ahead of me like a beacon of hope. My very own yellow-brick road out of the hellscape of high school.

Ideally, the first half of the year is spent grinding as hard as possible in order to squeeze into the college of your choice, and the second half is spent relaxing, slacking because we earned it. The first half of my senior year went pretty much as expected: I worked fairly hard, I got good grades, I kept my GPA up, I applied to college. Not to mention the time I spent at the dance studio, which served essentially as a second education as far as I’m concerned.

Between all of that stressing was my incessant worry about the state of the world, and how, it appeared, to be falling apart before my very eyes. None of the old guys in government seem to care too much about climate change, and why would they, since they’re leaving it in twenty-odd years? And that worried me, as I’m the one who they’re leaving the world to, and I would like it to be not on fire, and not polluted as all hell. This was my first vote in a presidential primary, so that too weighed on me heavily (I’m a Sanders stan. I’ll leave it at that.). Among all of that, I then had to worry about actually getting into college. I did, and I’ll be attending VCU in the fall, but that victory was pushed to the wayside when COVID entered the picture.

At the start, I was very aware of how Coronavirus was being portrayed; it gave people a pass on being xenophobes, which pissed me off greatly. But when people gossiped and giggled about the possibility of school cancellation, I waved it away, certain that the year would continue, perhaps limited slightly by a few days off. And then Governor Northam had The Press Conference announcing the closing of all Virginia schools.

Let's not forget that Wooderson was robbed, too.
I spent the rest of the day sad, somber, teary eyed. The class of 2020, MY class, had been robbed of our year. Our graduation, our prom. The school-sanctioned bullshit that we all proclaimed dumb, but looked forward to anyways. Gone. On top of that, I like school. There, I said it. I love learning and bettering myself, furthering my knowledge. Doing it from home is different. It feels wrong. But what choice do we have?

I’m not going to lie and pretend that I’m not pissed off, because I very much am. My senior class went through some shit, and the thing that brings us down is a virus? Talk about a bad dystopian novel. There are some times where I do feel that my year was ruined, and in those times I recognize that there will be things that I’ll never be able to relive. We didn’t even get to appreciate our last day of school, or tell our teachers goodbye. Other times, though, I notice that this has never happened before and that all of us are scared and uncertain together. That thought brings me comfort; everyone is working out the kinks of this “new normal”.

We’ve all, as a whole, been squashed inside our homes and forced to carry on. Nobody has dealt with this before, and although that is chaotic and overwhelming, it is also surprisingly helpful to know. My advice to you, as a senior whose year was pretty much ruined, is to take time to embrace stillness. Find moments where you can slow down and breathe. Who knows if you’ll ever have this much free time; you might as well take advantage of it. Personally, I’m finding stillness through yoga, which is such a wonderful practice (I highly recommend Yoga With Adrien on Youtube). Overall, I’m trying my best to take the bad with the good. This, too, shall pass, and when it does, the whole world will breathe a collective sigh of relief. Until then, appreciate your family, check in on your friends, and give yourself some extra love.

Right now, we all could use it.

32 comments:

  1. Jesus Clara, show some judgment.

    Nice effort by lil rob. Missing the end of senior year stinks but you still have four years of college to look forward to. Or five, you never know.

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  2. Super impressive post by young K. And good advice. I know my elder daughter, who, like me, met the author when she was brand new, faces the same thing. Just less eloquently.

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  3. My youngest is bummed about missing the end of 8th grade. Not as big of a deal, but at his school the 'graduating' eight graders all give speeches at the end of the year celebration, which culminates in a giant circle of students and families singing Joni Mitchell's 'Circle Game'. It's a real spectacle.

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  4. How're the scruff/staches coming, dudes? We might have to have a pictorial post of progress.

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  5. I’ve been fully bearded since the fall. I think I’m going to have some fun shaving it off in stages this weekend. I may even let my kids photoshop their best suggestions.

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  6. I’m on day 1 for my stache post job interview.

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  7. Succumbing to the pressure placed unfairly upon you by The Man. Boo.

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  8. I started the beard three weeks ago. Comes in whiter and whiter each time I grow it in. I usually do a bit of trimming/cleaning as it grows in, but I’m gonna just let it go for now.

    Debating asking the wife to clean up my crotch neck. Hate when that goes too long w/o a cleanup.

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  9. Gotta take care of the neck. We're not cavemen yet.

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  10. about 8 days into shaggitude. shaving the neck, like no one. (joke for two.) i look like an angry muppet.

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  11. a teacher in my county's public school system died from covid-19 today. awful.

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  12. Sorry for being unclear. I meant the back of my neck - the area the barbers clean up w/ a straight razor.

    Sad news on the teacher. I know one person who definitely has the virus (a senior citizen that is in the hospital now), and another who is pretty certain he has it. We'll all know many folks in the months ahead.

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  13. Repeating my comment from last night (not the delicious BBQ comment, the other one), watching the movie Contagion, even though the film is obviously a Hollywood product, stuck with me and there's this gnawing sense of what-if.

    As I recall the line out the door at the gun shop in my town and then heard about two houses burgled in my neighborhood this week, plus I circle back to the COVID-19 dashboard too often for the latest stats... well, it would be easy to inch slowly towards panicky despair were it not for my ironclad, airtight, locked-down mental well-being. Or something like that.

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  14. Scheduling a post for tomorrow where gheorghies can post pics of beardy scruffage.

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  15. i'm afraid i only have scruffy beardage. also, that's kinda sexist, whit. what's the female equivalent of a quarantine beard?

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  16. Do you really want me to answer that. I've actually wondered whether this situation will repopularize the disco mitt.

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  17. we're having most of the interior of our house painted by a guy we've known and trusted for a long time. our dog, who is super-friendly, has been keenly interested in what's going on, and my wife and i are both working so we haven't had a lot of time to pay attention to the dog. just a minute ago, the dog walked into my office, and she's got a stripe of paint down her side from where she must have bumped into a wall. corona!

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    1. Hope you are painting the room red. Corona and red stripe, mon.

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  18. pour some out for curly neal while dribbling two basketballs and sliding around the court

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  19. nice job by the young squirrel.

    jersey declared a disaster area.

    same with my upstairs bathroom. leakage under the tiles by the tub. water may have compromised joists. we've got to tear open the kitchen ceiling to see.

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  20. nice post by the mini Squirrel

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  21. I thought about the female equivalent to the beards on dudes and moved on. If I was hasty in that, we will happily accept any pics of non-shaving.

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  22. In what I guess is good news, I found out that both Dr J and his pulmonologist wife were officially diagnosed w/ the virus. The good part is that they are mid-quarantine at home and feeling good. They think both daughters got it as well. Sounds like he’ll be back at his ER soon.

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  23. Nice post to be sure. My oldest is also dealing with all this. She’s been ok so far but I think it hasn’t fully sunk in yet because last week was spring break and they haven’t received school work this week so it’s like an extended spring break. I think it will all become much more real come Monday. It’s a small thing in the big picture but losing the game Nadija of your senior year really sucks.

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  24. my students keep asking if i think prom will happen . . . i remain hopeful for them (but there's no chance)

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  25. Great post. Scruffage is white over here as well.

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  26. And I know you all have been digging a lot of various online concerts lately by artists you know. There are a ton of good ones happening or scheduled to over the weekend.

    But if you have the time and want to expand your musical horizons, starting at 9am on Friday, there will a live feed from Peter Bjorn and John's Studio (of "Young Folks" song fame). They will be broadcasting other Swedish acts for 36 hours. PB&J's set is at 5pm Friday. Saturday at 5pm the Shout Out Louds are playing (think poppier version of the Cure).

    It will most likely be a cornucopia of random Swedish pop music and DJ'ing. Your mileage may vary. https://www.ingrd.com/36hingrid

    Got any recommendations for artist live feeds?

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  27. Rhett Miller is playing every couple of days. It’s good stuff.

    I’m planning to watch Grant-Lee Phillips Sunday night.

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  28. Great post....proud papa. Who is the dad by the way?

    Smoked a shoulder tonight. Was decent...but I feel I am in a slump. Will forge ahead with ribs on Saturday. Working from home and on the lanai no less during these perfect days, plus stress = drinking way more than average.

    Looking forward to beard pics...mine is like my meat smoking. Will leave that there to marinate.

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  29. I'm Posehn Lite right now, beard-wise

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  30. Wife and I rewatching a few of the OJ: Made in America episodes. May be the best doc I’ve ever seen.

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