Everyone is making their comparisons to one year ago... the last time it was normal and nobody knew it. I'm usually a go-with-the-flow kind of guy that will adapt to whatever and that's kind of how I approached the last year too. When I stop to think about it though, it's crazy to think that I changed schools and went through the agony of not saying bye to former students, then not being able to truly meet the new ones. It was hard. Maybe I should reflect just a touch. One year ago, it was the last day of school before spring break at Waunakee Community Middle School. We knew the Coronavirus was getting to be kind of a big deal, and we wondered if it was the last time we'd see each other for (gasp) 3 or 4 weeks! Alyssa was going to California and I remember being like "please stay away from people, come back healthy!" because you know, there were (gasp) triple digit cases in the U.S. by that point. Mrs. Keenan and Ms. Meier brought their kids into the DPRH to have a massive, multi-team contest each hour, partly for review but mostly for fun. We were going out in style!
Of course, I didn't realize I was truly "going out" at all. It was the last time I taught students in person at Waunakee. I look at this picture of the blueberry pie I got from Elena and Lily, and Noah's just chilling on his chromebook back there like always, and the corner has a wrinkled green screen and giant lights out ready to go at a moment's notice to film the Opportunity and Constraint video because we had been chipping away at it for months. This was first hour... 12 kids... the tiniest group I've ever had in a classroom and now it would be the largest number of students in the room for any of my classes. The DPRH flag hangs proudly, and this was taken during the annual Honiday season running from Constitution Day on March 11 to Founder's Day on the 14th (which was, coincidentally, the reason the pie was brought in the first place). This year Constitution Day came and almost went without me even remembering. It's hard to run a micronation when your kids spent 5 months never having visited it, only to come back and have me in there 1 out of four classes as we rotate. It's not just the way class is run and the activities we do that have changed. Everything about the job changed this year. In 9 years I never woke up and thought "I don't want to teach today", but that streak was shattered this year. It has absolutely nothing to do with the students, my colleagues, my administrators, my school, my district or anything else. It has everything to do with the limitations we've been forced to work with which are out of everyone's control. Now that it looks like things might finally, slowly, readjust to a point where school has a CHANCE to look like that picture again, I'm downright giddy. I never thought I took my job for granted. I've played dodgeball and attended dances at work, and I've always appreciated it. I never realized how much I would appreciate the ability to mix three classes together for a review game though. I never thought I'd appreciate safety protocol allowing something as simple as a blueberry pie to be passed from one person to another. I never thought I'd appreciate the mess of my own room that I stayed in the whole day. None of these things have come back yet, but they will, and I can't wait. To the Waunakee Class of '25, man I still miss you and wish we could've finished what we started the right way. To the DeForest Class of '25, man I feel like I haven't been able to give you everything I'm capable of. To the Turner Class of '21, life better get straightened out enough to host a Graduation Ceremony for more than family members in attendance. To all my future classes, I truly can't wait to savor every annoying, noisy, messy moment once we get them back. It's been a hard year. but I'd like to think we'll all be better for it. The ordinary will feel extraordinary, and we can't let that go away after we get used to it again.
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AuthorJohn Honish: Archives
June 2021
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