This week March 12 makes it one year since COVID became very real (and close to home) for me in ways that the Houston Rodeo closure, NBA games stopping, and all the national headlines can't match....
It was Thursday of Spring Break for my university, and all staff had Friday off.
We had a last minute 4pm meeting to discuss what it would mean to extend spring break a week and shift all classes online, they needed input from all perspectives.
It was a surreal meeting to be having, and I remember that a few top level folks were out or off-campus that day and had to try to call/video call in (if you had told me that was how all my meetings were to be conducted for the next year...I don't know if I'd have believed it).
The meeting went late, and I met my hubby (on his spring break) for dinner, and just remember trying to make sense of it all. After dinner I went to try to buy some extra food before everything closed. I went to a Target right next door and was not expecting to already have hurricane-prep level bare shelves.
One year later, I am really fortunate to be able to say that my family is still safe and well, and definitely missing time together. Video calls help, but they are not the same.
I also know how fortunate I am to be able to have kept my job, and found some good things about working from home -- though I do hope to one day make my dining room a dining room again....
We are not at the end of it, but knowing that we have hit 100 million vaccine shots given gives me hope.
