So Much to be Thankful For...

I have so much to be thankful for!  My heart may be sad in this moment at the realization that I won't get to see all of you until at least after May 1st, but the reality is I am sad about this because I am so thankful to have a job that I love working with students who enhance and enrich my life every day!

Two weeks ago today I had to go into school to bring home a bunch of stuff that I knew I would need to have available to me as I worked with all of you.  Since that time I have been super strict about isolating myself at home.  In the last two weeks I interacted with NO people face to face.  (Lexi hated every single second of it!)  But all of that was because I care about my students, their families, our health-care workers, our first responders, and the men and women who work in essential front line jobs like as delivery workers and at grocery stores... and it was for my parents.  My parents aren't "old, old" but technically they are in the "Senior Citizen" at risk category and I wanted to be around them, but I didn't want to risk exposing them to the coronavirus if I had been exposed to it.  Today marked 2 weeks which is how long the CDC and other health experts recommend that individual self isolate and so tonight I was finally able to go over to my parents house for dinner.  My mom made a traditional Thanksgiving day meal (see photo of my very yummy, very full plate) which is part of the reason I am thinking about how thankful I am even in the midst of a pandemic and even in the midst of extreme disappointment of not being able to see you face-to-face for a month.

At Christmas, my sister bought me a gratitude journal where I am supposed to write 3 things I am grateful for every day.  I have to admit, it is a good way to force myself to reflect back on the day and find 3 unique things that I am grateful for and even on these hard days I have found plenty to write down. 

So I want to tell you a few...
- I am thankful for each student who sends me an email and updates me on what they have been doing.
- I am thankful for the students who, unprompted, sent me an update on their ACT scores.
- I am thankful for the students who have sent a note asking about how Lexi is doing and telling me that they miss her.
- I am thankful for former students who have found time to reach out and check in with me.
- I am thankful for students who reach out and ask questions.
- I am thankful for the Counselor Website being available as an easy place for us to post updates and Mr. Estice helping me to continue updating it even now.
- I am thankful for the Kilbourne support staff who are working from home to help contact scholarship providers for alternate means to allow students to submit their scholarship applications.
- I am thankful for the teachers who are genuinely trying to make the best of the remote learning experience.  I am especially thankful for those teachers who have contacted me saying, "I want to follow up with this student because I haven't heard from them, but I really just want to make sure they are ok and not to just ask them why they aren't doing their assignments yet."
- I am thankful to work in a district that knows that this is hard for you and for your parents and for your teachers and wants to support all of you in this time.
- I am thankful that Mrs. Humphrey has worked to secure additional chromebooks we can loan out to the students in families who had not already been able to get a loaner device.
- I am thankful to live in the United States, to be blessed with a strong healthcare system, and to have all of those amazing front line workers who are doing everything they can to help keep us safe and to allow us to return to a "normal" life again as quickly as possible.
- I am thankful for YOU!  Each student and parent who takes the time out of their day to read my blog posts.  I hope they are useful and informative to you, but I just want you to know that I value this interaction and I appreciate that you are pausing in your day to read the information I share.

There is no question that I am sad tonight.  Yes, I saw it coming.  Yes, I knew that it was possible.  But no, I still wasn't really ready to hear school buildings are closed until May 1st.  The good news though is I will choose to be thankful that even though the form of our relationship has to change, our connection does not and we can continue to email or chat any time!  If you are feeling sad tonight, I'd like to encourage you to reframe this disappointment and think instead about how much you are thankful for today and every day.  It doesn't take the sadness away, but it definitely makes it a little easier to manage.