I am so grateful to be able to continue teaching Distance Learning for the rest of the year. Crazy idea for many… but for me, a blessing!

I have been an educator for 20 years. I’ve held roles as a teacher, counselor, and assistant principal, but this year making the transition from a traditional classroom to a virtual one, has been the most challenging. I work late nights and several hours each weekend, just to deliver quality lessons to my students and connect with my families. While this has been more work than I’ve ever imagined, I have grown. My tech skills have improved as well as the interpersonal relationships I have with my students.

To be honest, the last few years of teaching have been rough for me. I have two small kids and went though a divorce. Being a single working mom is no joke. It’s hard. Every day is hard. The rush begins early and the stress follows quickly behind. I had developed a level of exhaustion that put me living life on the edge. I felt like I would crack or scream or cry at any moment… for years… day in and day out. This lifestyle hurt my relationships with my students, my own kids, family, colleagues, and friends. I just didn’t have the patience to put one more stressor on my plate. Even though I was so busy, life was actually quite lonely.

But then something happened… a pandemic. All of that stress and pain has changed this year. While I’m still feeling overworked and tired, I have experienced so many silver linings through this year of teaching through a pandemic. Sort of ironic, right?

Being home has actually been a good thing. The pace of life without the rush to get somewhere in the early morning, kids fed, clothed, lunches made, and all the stress of being away from my kids… was instantly gone. Our mornings were less rushed and we enjoyed more snuggles together. We ate breakfast at a healthy pace rather than a mad dash to inhale calories just to keep our bodies alive. Our afternoons were a rush to get to activities and then home for dinner, bath, and bedtime, rarely stopping at the beach to watch the sunset and just enjoy life. It’s a pattern that so many of us endure and it’s utterly exhausting!

But now, and for the past 13 months, I’ve gotten to put my role as a mom in front of my role as an educator. I’ve gotten to be the kind of mom I always imagined I would be, but that wasn’t my former reality. I’ve been the one to drop my kids at school and pick them up every day, jobs that I had to ask for help with and hated not being able to do myself. I wanted that role, but couldn’t have it before the pandemic. I had to earn a living to privide for my kids and that meant that my parenting choices were often limited. Now, I get to say hi to other parents throughout my day at drop off, pick up, and afterschool activities. In a way, I’ve been more social this year than in any former years as a parent.

I’ve also learned about my kids in ways that I would never have been able to without having to teach them at home. Even though I’m an educator through and through, meeting the needs of my own kids has been more challenging than anything else. I can now advocate for my kids because I fully understand how they work, how they think, what helps them and what triggers them. I can better push to get my kids the support they need in their academic and social lives. I now understand how to help them, the way they need to be helped, instead of just guessing or assuming what might help them.

Am I happy that we encountered a pandemic? No. People lost lives and livelihoods and that is awful. Do I miss my students and colleagues and the laughter and smiles that I got to experience on campus? Yes, I do. But while my own kids gets to go back to school and play and interact with peers again, I get to continue teaching from home. I get to be a mom first and fit in my role as a teacher around that. For the first time since becoming a mother, I get to enjoy my two passions without sacrificing one for the other. I’m so grateful for this past year and am looking forward to another few months of this slower paced version of my own life! I feel truly blessed.

As a person who spent years and years chasing the dream… the paycheck… the job… and then the family, I am ready to embrace a few more months of just living and enjoying this beautiful, more balanced, life with the ones I love!