Silver Linings

Today a dear friend and educator colleague of mine talked about silver linings with distance learning. She pointed out that distance learning has forced us to get to know our students better and vice versa. We’re in their homes, teaching online. They’re in ours.

Academics more often than not has been overshadowed by social emotional learning (and to some extent, should be) because we must know our students before we can most optimally get to the academics, especially in this distance learning platform. And this stay at home time has forced many of us to get to know ourselves better, too. Another silver lining. It’s forced some of us to reflect, to look at our flaws, what holds us back, and what we now see and want to get past. For a lot of us, this has been in the forefront of our lives lately.

For me, this pandemic put a silver lining around gratitude because I saw how I didn’t want to sustain the rat race I was choosing to live before. I appreciate time home with my boys and husband together, forced to slow down. And with that gratitude it also brought to light my flaws and misconceptions about myself. Self doubt has been plaguing me since this all started. Around every turn, a reminder of what has been holding me back and what I want to get past. What it’s forcing me to do is shift my mindset, to manifest what I want and what I am underneath it all. Confident, resilient, self-compassionate…truth. That’s what my silver lining is made of. What is yours?