For my 3 teens, finishing the 2020 school year was akin to trekking uphill without six meals a day (teens are Hobbitses) and wearing a cape from the elves, paddling a roaring river, throwing a ring into the fire of Mount Doom in Mordor.
Leave all your pals and teachers on a Friday the 13th and some of them you’ll not see again. Internet down for 2-4 hours. Fight off discouragement. This assignment didn’t take two hours but two days of four hours each day… never mind — One more creative project and mom doesn’t have a studio of art supplies (Sorry, girls, I’m not a hoarder right now). Missing friends and milestones and knowing your buddy is unsafe in that living environment. Safer at Home? Keep staying home.
Take a sunset walk?
Not so fast — 8am video meeting tomorrow (which is now an ungodly hour to them). Just keep going. Can’t return to the Shire. Maybe we return to the Shire after 13 months away. Sure hope not. Maybe sooner. We aren’t the same as we were 10 weeks ago.
While 2020 seems like a lifetime ago, just two years ago, this was our life. We are in person again this year, and started the school year in masks but end with smiles evident on our faces.
Okay, last thing, I promise, an important life lesson: Watch for the brilliant volcanic lava exploding everywhere. (Didn’t Gandalf think about the lava flow after the ring was tossed into the fire? At least he had a moth to whisper to so the eagles could come save Frodo and Sam and fly them home.)
Almost finished, kids! Good luck on finals this week! Soon enough we will be on summer break, enjoying all the sunshine Colorado has to offer.