I’m committed to demystifying what being an educator and administrator is like right now. There is a moment in every day, for months now, that I wish I could do more for my students, my families, and my colleagues. And a lot of times, there’s not much else I can do.

I have heard countless stories from so many people in our school community. And I love to listen to people, even when I know there’s not much I can do past listening. I’m 100% sure that nobody is “fine” even if they visually appear to be.

People are showing up to school to work and do their best for students. Students are showing up doing their best. Families are engaging as best as they can. But nobody is “fine” or “ok” or whatever word you want to use. Nobody.

I feel like there’s a lot of denial about this though and it is evident in some people’s rhetoric about trying to keep moving forward or talks about grit and resilience. This rhetoric is not helpful because it is dismissive of people’s lived experiences right now.

I am not in a position to solve all of people’s problems. I work with what I know I can positively impact. I’m all in to support and help. But it is not lost on me that none of us are “fine” or “ok.” We are treading water right now, sometimes inhaling water.

And so we make the best of it every day. People are finding laughs and fun where they can, still enjoying as much as possible. But beneath all that is a lot of trauma for everyone, on top of trauma we already had.

This is just my perspective based on my experiences since March 13, 2020 when we had our last in-person day of the 2019-2020 school year.