O P I N I O N
Serious Question…Will This Virus Actually Ever End?
Weddings, places of employment, sports leagues and almost everything but restaurants are staying open and encouraging the American people to come in and check out what they have going on. Nine months into this virus and we are still having this struggle with 30 percent of the population not wearing masks to prevent further spreading. This virus has kept me not only from finding work in the past nine months, it has taken away so much of the time I spent with my kids. I love my son. I love my daughter.
With how risky it is for older people to come in contact with the virus, I have had a hard time trying to figure out how to spend quality time with them, knowing that I don’t have any control over where other people, who I may come across at work, go. I have found myself in a tough situation on the emotional side as a father who loves his children to death. I don’t get to see them as much as I used to, I don’t get to spend quality time at home or out in public with them.
This is very tough as a young father trying to figure out how to co-parent in the pandemic. At first, it felt like the country would band together in a, “We Americans vs the World” type of mentality but all it has been is “America vs America.” I can’t remember the last time I saw someone wearing a mask in public where the building didn’t strictly ENFORCE the protocol. We are currently in the middle of everyone disagreeing and not getting any closer to the end. I really thought last month when president-elect Joe Biden won the election that everyone would start to change their minds about this virus being fake and get on board with being part of the solution. It’s getting tiring day after day knowing that it’s the PEOPLE in the country stopping us from recovery and not that the virus is too dominant. I feel like screaming sometimes, “what will it take to finish this pandemic?” As the most intelligent species on the planet we sure aren’t acting like it!
The school district is remote until January 19, in that time I’ll be working as a paraprofessional after all this time. I got hired about a week ago by the Manchester School District to work with special education students. I still have the same viewpoint as my earlier articles, I wouldn’t want to send my kids into hybrid or anything close to being at school. Yes, I am thankful for the opportunity to work at school but I am coming from the mindset of what was TEN MONTHS AGO when I was originally seeking this position to in turn become the next basketball coach at the school I wanted. Being a paraprofessional now feels very different from what school used to be. The virus makes it so that the number of kids that I see during a workday look like a private day care. When I tell people online what I do for work they always freak out but then I get to say hey, “it’s just 10 kids a day until the district ban lifts and then we can slowly start bringing more kids back to school.
Around Manchester a lot of conversations I have are the same day to day, people want to work and live in peace. We are all tired of being broke and told not to visit our families yet we have to be to work on time. It’s frustrating having to do what you’re told and then you realize that no matter what, you still don’t get to see your loved ones. I have seen Manchester businesses close day after day and it’s sad to start to see the effects on the community tear through small business. It’s heartbreaking to see people like myself only get $1,200 back in June to pay for bills and food for a few weeks, but here we are in early December with no money from the government to help us out.
I guess my weekly paycheck of $12 an hour from the school district is supposed to keep me afloat after being out of work since March 13th.
Happy Holidays everyone.
