It is April 2022. The last few years have been... something.
4 years of a Trump presidency that has forced open wide the divide between people in this country - and around the world. There are a lot of ignorant, hateful, easy to brainwash people out there.
Year 3 of the covid pandemic.
There is a war (Russian invasion) in Ukraine that threatens a potential WW3.
And yet...
Here I sit in Indiana, sipping my morning coffee, watching the sun slowly creep up, burning off a springtime fog. My 2 teenagers are getting ready for school. One is in the shower - it's been at least 30 mins so far - and the other keeps popping in to tell me bits from her day yesterday. My husband is downstairs, having already started his work day.
All very normal. But also different.
I should clarify that my kids both go to school in person full time. Over the past 2 years, school has sometimes been virtual (doing lessons from home), hybrid (teachers teaching via Zoom), synchronous and asynchronous learning have become normal terms. For the last 2 years, in person school has also meant wearing a mask all day - and there have been tense school board meetings about mask wearing.
I should clarify that the pandemic led to my husband and I both working from home - full time for me and majority of time for him. Huge culture shift in my corporate world as we adjust to this new way of working. Remarkably, my work group is now 50% not-corporate-local so we are truly a remote work group, even as co-workers choose to spend time back in the office.
For me, life is normal. But it's all a new normal. A new way of doing things and moving through all these different spaces.
Until next time,
Liz