Thanks COVID-19
Just a few short weeks ago Americans were hearing the warnings, but really not thinking that they applied to us. We were washing our hands more, using more hand sanitizer, watching the news, but we definitely weren't social distancing. No, not at all. We were still having our fundraisers, kids were still in school and then fast forward just one week. The week of March 9th hit. In a week & a half our lives have changed drastically. We started to take the few, isolated cases we did have in America seriously. But still... We thought, "we need to protect the elderly & immune-compromised, but for the rest of us it's just like the flu, right?" Wrong.
"Well that escalated quickly."
Now we are afraid. Most of us live in areas with pretty strict orders to self-isolate, to stay home unless it's really necessary to get out. I am not going to lie; it's exhausting! My kids are stir crazy. The adults second guess every time we leave or allow someone to leave. Is it necessary? Will anyone come in contact with this invisible enemy? Are we being responsible? I'M JUST GOING FOR A WALK LINDA!
Who we are / Where we are
I have one in High School, one in Middle School & one in College. Our younger 2 have been out of school for almost 2 weeks now & begin online school on Monday, March 23rd. Our oldest was in the home stretch of her freshman year at Colorado State University. This was supposed to be her opportunity to spread her wings & fly. Where did she get to fly? Right back home for online classes.
This brings me to the return of my personal blog (after a few years absence). Right now, at this very moment, I am traveling with my oldest to move her out of her dorm at Colorado State. We drove from Aggieland to Amarillo, then from Amarillo to Fort Collins (where we are now). Tomorrow morning at our scheduled 8am appointment time we will move her things out of Westfall Hall. We have 4 hours max to get everything out. CSU has been amazing. They are encouraging all students who are able to go ahead & move out. They have scheduled move outs with only the student & 1 assistant allowed to control the population on campus & maintain the CDC guidelines; protecting all of us as best they can. They are prorating room & board and refunding deposits. The are ensuring that the students who need housing will have it; international students and those with housing insecurities will have rooms at a few very specific halls on campus in the coming weeks. All classes will be online for at least the remainder of the semester. Seniors at CSU are currently scheduled for graduation in December of 2020. I am sure many of the universities around the country are doing the same thing right now; taking care of their own.
In the past two days I have driven over 1,000 miles and I will drive over 1,000 more over the next two days. I have come in contact with more humans than I care to during these trying and stressful times; but I know we need to do this. I have become VERY aware of how unaware our younger humans are of the severity of this; for most of them this isn't "real". We have listened to A LOT of news, podcasts and praise music on our trip. I am trying to keep a healthy dose of reality balanced with a healthy dose of faith while I have a captive audience. I am trying to help her to understand the reality of our situation, the responsibility that we have to accept, and to work on faith over fear or anxiety. Hey, it's really hard to remind her to have faith over fear when my own anxiety is really trying to take over.
So here's the deal; we ARE called to have faith over fear BUT this does NOT mean that we forget that we are called to do good. We ARE called to do good, and right now doing good means social distancing as much as possible.
I am not going to lie; this trip is terrifying. It's just the two of us. We are far from our support system. What if we have a flat? What if the truck breaks down? What if we never get through this? What if this virus just keeps going & we have to social distance forever? (This "blue" is terrified of not being able to hug others.)
This trip has also been good. Thing #1 has gotten a little bit of practice driving in CO while there is snow on the ground; an important skill as she still plans to continue her studies at CSU. She loves it here so I am praying that these students will be able to return to "normal" in the not too distant future.
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| She looks thrilled to have me taking her picture driving through FOCO |
I know that many people have their opinions or theories about the situation we are in now. I am just here to express my thoughts and feelings. Who knows, with all this time I have I may actually keep it up this time.
As we sit here in the hotel tonight Sloan & I have had a good laugh at all the old pics from my last attempt at a personal blog. My professional blogs will still be active; but I am going to try to use this outlet for my personal posts. I will also link to my old blog if anyone cares to look back at some of the pics. If anyone has any ideas for retrieving the password for that blog then I might be able to combine the two at some point. But for now Welcome to The Peacock Flock Take 2 - I really am just some mother rambling. I am sure some of you can relate.
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