expected but not wanted

Day 40

Its been 24 hours since Governor Baker's announcement that schools will remain online for the remainder of the 2019/2020 school year.

I expected it but it's still a hard pill to swallow.

Back when WPI announced their closure and the move to online for D term I cried for Ryan. College has a huge social component and in the blink of an eye, it was gone. The kid who blossomed when he got to college was now home. His fraternity closed. His friends back at their respective homes.

And yesterday's announcement threw any idea of Elisa and Lauren going back in person to finish out their Junior year out the window. The in-person social component is gone. The daily rituals of them getting up, stressing about being late, rushing out the door - cut short. Prom, Junior Trip, the start of off-campus privileges as a junior all stopped before they even started. In the big picture I know it will be ok but it's hard to see their world come crashing down around them because at 17 this is a big deal.

Tears for Andrew who won't get to finish out his first year as a teacher in the normal way. The remainder of his first year of teaching now remote.

So today I shed tears for them. Tears for the loss of their norm. Wanting to so desperately to fix it but knowing there is nothing that I can do to bring their lives back to "normal". Nothing I can do to give them back the experiences they have been waiting for. This hurts more than I ever expected. One day they were at school, the next they were home, for the rest of the school year. No time to prepare. No time to wrap up loose ends. No time to laugh with their friends and talk about summer plans. Just upheaval. And tears.