To Our Students, We Are Missing You Right Now…..

We are missing you right now

You are home.  We are home.  Some of you are simply “off” for a few weeks.  Some of you are engaged in “distance” or “remote” learning.  It is tough right now, for sure.  There are unanswered questions like, “When do we get to go back and see our friends?”  “Will we have to make up all these days?”  “Am I going to catch the corona virus?”  “Can I get away with having a snack during our google meet or will I get yelled at for eating in class?”, “When I go onto said google meet to connect with my teacher, is she actually wearing pants?”

A lot of very good questions indeed.  I can answer a few of them.  First, we don’t know what is going to happen either.  There’s no play book for this one.  We are making it up as we go along and trying as best we can to figure things out.  We know you want to go back to school, even if it is just to see your friends. Your parents want you to go back to school (trust me on this one, they REALLY want you to go back to school).  Your teachers want you to go back to school. (seriously, we do!)  We wish we could give you a date, provide you with a countdown calendar of sorts.  We can’t.  The best we can do is follow what our national and state governments are telling us.

Will you have to make any of the days up?  Some of you are continuing with your lessons online, so probably not.  Some of you are not continuing your lessons, you’ll have to check with your state about whether you will have to make them up.  If you do, how bad can it be?  I mean, consider how bored you are right now.  You are bored enough to be reading this, so, I mean, you are BORED!  How bad can sitting in class be compared to this?  Sure, every time Maddie sneezes, everyone will jump and want to spray her off with Lysol, but that is to be expected.  Maddie always sneezes.  Why is that?  What is it that makes this kid sneeze so much?  Is she allergic to air?  What the heck?  And for the love of God, haven’t we all learned through this to cover your mouth when you sneeze?  She just lets those things rip!  If I were sitting within 6 yards of her I would go in there looking like I was ready for a deep sea dive, wet suit, mask, SCUBA tank, the whole deal.  I mean, it is gross enough that you all hack and sneeze on desks, then put your papers on those desks and then hand them in to me.  Now I have to contend with Sneezer Maddie?  She is like a sneeze ninja, she gives no warning sign of those things coming at all.  It’s not like they are quiet either.  For goodness sake, last time she sneezed in class, Mrs. Nerdleblank,  the science teacher down the hall said, “Bless you.”  SCUBA gear, definitly.

So that takes care of if you will have to make up the days in the summer.  What about, “are you going to catch the virus”?  Honestly, I don’t have an answer for that either.  I know it sounds really scary sometimes.  I also know that I am in no way a doctor so the best I can tell you is that you should follow the advice of the professionals around you.  Seemingly simple things like washing your hands and sanitizing frequently touched surfaces will go a long way to protecting yourself and those around you from this virus.  As rough as it seems, perhaps it is wise to do as our Surgeon General of the United States, Jerome Adams, says and “Stay away from Nana and Pop Pop.”  Nana and Pop Pop, how cute is he?  Here is this man who gets up on TV, trying to talk to multiple generations across all walks of life about how to protect themselves from this bugger of a virus and is so charming and relatable that he just brings us all together with the fact that we all have Nanas and Pop Pops. Oh, and he is totally brilliant too.  We should probably follow his advice.

So that about does it.  We have no idea when you will be back in school and you should wash your hands and probably clean your rooms.  Remember that we really do miss you, love you, pray you are well and happy.  Hang on as well as you can and remember this will not last forever.  In the meantime, try to make something in your environment better; clean it, rearrange it, decorate it.

OH MY GOSH!  I almost forgot!  We still need to talk about snacks during google meets and whether your teacher is wearing pants.  Yeah, you can probably get away with snacks, just brush the Cheetos dust off  your face before you turn your camera on. As far as pants? No.  Well, sort of.  She will have leggings or yoga pants or sweats that are older than you on.  Even if from the shoulders up her make up is done and her hair is well groomed, like an iceberg, you only see the tip………..