Quarantine Life: Working From Home

This week marks the fifth week of quarantine, friends — or is it the sixth week? I seem to be losing track of the days here. Time certainly seems pretty irrelevant right now, doesn’t it?

Take my schedule for working from home, for example. Right now, it feels pretty much nonexistent, which sounds strange because, umm, HELLO, I’ve worked from home the majority of the week for years now.

So…I told myself that last Wednesday would be the day I’d get back to work. I even gave myself an extra week off for my “spring break” and yet…the motivation just isn’t there. Pitching, blog posts — it all seems so overwhelming right now.

But the world is overwhelmed right now, isn’t it? Everything is so precarious, especially on the medical front, but also when it comes to our social and emotional well-being too. The life we knew is changing forever, so continually processing where we are and where we’re going can feel like quite the feat sometimes — OK, it feels like a huge feat all the time!

It all got me thinking about connecting, especially when it comes to working from home during the quarantine. With so many people working from home, I thought it would be cool to see photos of people’s home office! So! Earlier this week, I tweeted, asking people to show off their office digs, complete with this photo of my space — our kitchen table, complete with my framed viral tweet and a Diet Coke, of course! And I love all the responses, including all the cat co-workers out there!! Check out the thread if you haven’t yet — it will definitely make you smile!

I may have experience with working from home, but my mom? Not so much. I applaud her and every single teacher for all they’re doing and I’ve asked my mom to write about her experience today. Her words, as always, are incredibly wise…

Working from home is not something I have ever even thought about in 27 years in education. I mean, 650 kids in my house? LOL. Not to mention my short attention span when I am at home (Oh, look, dishes…better put in a load of laundry….is the mail here?). You get the idea!

So, when we started this quarantine (I couldn’t even spell quarantine then, now it just rolls off my keyboard!), I couldn’t imagine what it would be like. However, things have settled into a nice routine. That doesn’t mean, though, that it’s a “fun” time. As we all know, there is a boatload of worry with what is happening with COVID-19. Lots of sadness and fear are present in our country right now. When this first happened, I couldn’t figure out why I felt so out of sorts and unproductive. Then, I did some Googling and found out that’s a real thing from the stress and worry that everyone is under. I have since tried to be more gentle with myself and encourage Melissa and Janelle to do the same. Of course, that doesn’t mean that things are hearts and roses over here. You should have been here yesterday when the three of us were all melting down at the same time. But, we got through it and today, at 5 p.m., which is a bad time around here, we promised each other that we wouldn’t have another day like yesterday, and we all calmed down.

During this time, I hope all of Melissa’s readers can take our advice and try to be gentle with yourselves. Stay healthy and safe, friends, and follow the recommendations for social distancing to keep everyone healthy! Be well…