Recovered (kinda) in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of HAPPINESS

Wow! Where has time gone! It was a month ago that I got Covid! And tomorrow will make 2 weeks since I’ve been back to work/ started at my new building location! And 3 weeks since my daughter started at her new school! Whew! Okay so I’ll break it down by sections.

Covid: That second week was absolute HELL. I say that because by that point I was so TIRED of being sick and so TIRED of not being able to breathe. I was still pretty dehydrated which made my heartbeat irregular. If you’ve had Covid you’ll understand how scary it is. The prolonged anxiety on top of actually being sick was one of the worst parts of the entire experience. My aunt in Georgia was in the hospital with Covid being treated for pneumonia at the same time, so after she was released and we were both home and out of breath…she convinced me to go into the ER just to doublecheck everything was okay or if there was any type of relief they could give me. Lo and behold, my oxygen was great and there was no evidence of pneumonia and I was sent on my way with nothing. My doctor never responded to me about Antibody treatment…until I pretty much felt better. IMAGINE THAT! There’s something out there that could’ve helped me, but my doctor was too busy to send in a referral. AMERICA! Anyway, my senses were out of whack for a long time. I was smelling and tasting this horrid smell/taste. Also, I tried to go with my daughter to school on her first day, but because I had been inside sick for so long I was completely overwhelmed by the sounds and smells and just driving again....I started crying within being so overwhelmed. I returned home and my boyfriend had to take her. ANYWAY, on week two…as the days went on I felt better and better. I received a doctors note for that week, since according the school I was okay’d to come back after 10 days, but I wasn’t ready. By Friday of that week, I was feeling GREAT. Maybe 93%. Currently, I’m at about a 95%. I don’t know how to explain it. I can just tell that I’m not fully 100% myself. I still get winded easily and I get these chest pains....my initial pains were heartburn (that’s one of the reasons I went to the ER). But apparently heartburn is a COVID SYMPTOM! Who knew?! Anyway, I don’t know what these chest pains are that I’m having but I’ve been wanting to contact my doctor anyway. You really don’t know what Covid does to your body and I just want to verify that everything is in full working order, and if it’s NOT then this will explain why I just don’t feel quite 100% right. My son had a cough and runny nose by the time I was feeling better, and I took him in to Urgent Care. It turned out to be just a cold…so as of now no one in my house other than myself got sick.

My daughters new school: Well, since I was sick. We missed her back to school Ice Cream Social Event. I didn’t get to attend the first day of school with her, so I didn’t get to meet her teacher. I didn’t get to meet other parents or see her classroom. We’re almost a month in and I still don’t feel confident because I didn’t get to attend on the first day. This is her first year at this school, so these are the events that would have gotten me oriented! I would’ve met other new parents at the school or more experienced parents! I feel so out of the loop! Even my boyfriend does drop off and pickup, so I feel so far removed from the whole process. Anyway, she’s doing great in school! She’s loving it! They pretty much have homework every night except Friday nights and weekends of course. I feel like from the time we get home after school....that entire time is devoted to my daughters homework. We’ve also been keeping a log of books and working on her reading, and studying every day for her spelling tests. It’s a college preparatory school, so the work is rigorous sometimes, but this is great for her. She can handle it. I signed her up for Cheerleading. They have a junior cheerleading team for the pre-k to 5th graders. They will cheer at home games for the High schools varsity team. They’ll cheer the first half of games. She is so excited about it. Tomorrow is her first real practice where she will actually learn cheers (her first practice was just uniform fitting). I think their first home game is the 24th. She seems to be acclimating well and making lots of friends. I’ve received no negative behavior reports at all.

My new work location: IMAGINE my culture shock when I was expecting the behaviors of the high schoolers from my last high school I work at, and these kids are SO different. This is the only magnet high school in town, so the kids have to apply to go there. Most of the kids are college bound. I love watching the kids engage in discussions and work on their work. No one is perfect so of course there are some outliers, but I can usually get the rowdy kids to work! At my other school there were kids that would cuss you out and NEVER do their work. It’s not really an issue at my new school. The school is absolutely beautiful. My biggest issue thus far is really just trying to figure out where to go. There are two floors and 3 hallways on each floor, so I often go to the right class number but the wrong floor or the right classroom wrong hallway quite often! I’m loving it though. The staff is great, and the other paras are friendly and engaging. There’s maybe 4 of us total for the 700 person student body. I have the most experience of everyone though. I’ve had teachers rave about me already because I’m not afraid to just jump in and get right to work. High schoolers don’t scare me. Especially these kids! After having worked in a high school with A LOT of behaviors, a lot of poverty stricken homes, and a lot of students (and parents) who just gave NO FUCKS, this is so refreshing! I’m the closest with one other para. This is her second year at this school. She’s really nice, and we usually eat lunch together. She’s older than me and married with a grown daughter, but she’s been very nice and helpful since I started. The other person I am closest with is a teacher. She’s new this year and JUST moved here over the summer. I LOVE her personality! She is a hoot! However, her quirkiness and sarcasm has made her a non-favorite amongst other teachers she tells me. I haven’t been there long enough to really see…but she and I work well together! We’ve exchanged numbers and instagrams and whatnot. We haven’t hung out outside of work or anything. She’s just a fun person to be around and she really makes me feel like I’m a CO-TEACHER versus “just a para”. I could BE a teacher. Could’ve been one by now. I LOVE what I do and the capacity at which I do it, and I deserve to be respected like a teacher would. I get to build those individual relationships with students whereas an actual classroom teacher doesn’t have the same time or one on one time that I have with students. My job is INTEGRAL! Some students would never learn if it wasn’t for me. Anyway, I just love that she really acknowledges that. LOVE HER!

We’ve been adjusting well to our schedule. I just have to have everything ready the night before. Me and my son are out of the door by 6:15am. I drop him off at daycare at 6:30 and I’m clocking in at work by 6:45am and school starts at 7am…and by the time 2pm rolls around I am more than ready to clock out! I get 30-40 minutes to run errands before I pick my son up from daycare since at the time I get off is their naptime, so I wait until he’s already awake and having snack before I pick him up. Then we get home and I start making my daughters lunch for the next day. My boyfriend and my daughter make it home maybe 10 minutes after me and my son…and I’m going going going until bed time which is usually around 9pm. Now I have to figure out some ME TIME! Last year I used to workout before work everyday, now I obviously do not have the time for that, so I’ll have to deal with an evening work out. But WHEN?