I didn't sign up for this - teaching during a pandemic

It has taken me a few weeks years to figure out exactly where I wanted to go with this post. I have been journaling and writing a lot, hoping that it will somehow help unscramble the millions of thoughts I have daily about our current situation. And the truth is, I'm still a little unsure.

I think it is safe to say that no one signed up for this. Not the nurses who are front-line, making sure that everyone is okay, not the police officers who were forced to hand out tickets for gatherings of more than 15 people, not the grocery store workers making minimum wage to ensure that everyone else is getting what they need and honestly, everyone else. But for teachers, things are strange. To say the least.

We are now almost two years into this pandemic 'thing', and things in the field of education seem to be getting more and more difficult. Maybe, we're to blame. We finished the school year last year with a 'light at the end of the tunnel' outlook. September would be brighter. It would be better. We would be going back towards some resemblance of normal... yet, here we are. More exhausted (and confused) than ever before.

We're still in a state of uncertainty, and it doesn't look like it will be easing up anytime soon. Tensions are rising as we introduce mandatory vaccinations - drawing a (very controversial) line in the sand between colleagues, friends, family. Expectations and demands are higher as we work towards bridging the gaps in the learning that the pandemic has caused.. all while we're still living the day-to-day implications of higher absence rates and a government system that isn't adequately funding what they are asking us to do.

Most of us got into teaching because we love teaching. We love the interactions, the hugs, the 'ah-ha' moments when a multiplication finally clicks in the mind of a fourth grader. But lately, it has been hard to appreciate those moments, between the piles and piles of added work.