2020 Hindsight: Good Job

It's been an emotional week (and it's only Wednesday!)  12/23/2020 is the last workday of the 2020 year.  One of the benefits of working at a Higher Education Institution is the "Special Winter Vacation" between Christmas and New Year's and, this year, because of the pandemic, Penn has given us three extra days.  So we are now off from 12/24/2020 and do not go back into the office until 1/6/2021.  But that's not really the reason for emotions on the 358th day of 2020.  The semester has ended for Penn (me at work, Alexa at School), Temple (Sarah at work), and Colls HS (Anna).  And I am reflecting on how crazy of a semester it has been.  How hard the teachers and faculty have had to work to deliver quality education.  How hard nurses and doctors and transport and maintenance and custodians and reception have had to work to keep our healthcare institutions open.  How food service locations have had to transform their method of delivery (including, delivery but also curbside and takeout) and how so many are struggling to stay open.  And then, at the end of the day, we got an email from the School District thanking parents for keeping things together this semester and included this video.  It's an Alicia Keys song, but covered by a youth ensemble called One Voice Children's Choir.  It's title is my 2020 Hindsight: Good Job!  So many people have gone above and beyond and, I think, to see so many of my friends and former students at Penn Nursing posting pics of themselves getting the Covid vaccine has made me proud and also hopeful.  So the emotions welled up when hearing this song, and also the video of the CHS Teachers telling the students how much they are missed and wishing them Happy Holidays....  I am an emotional guy in normal times, and tonight I was especially so.  I hope that this hopeful feeling can carry me through to the end of 2020 and also persist into 2021.  Thank you to all the front-line heroes, thank you to the teachers, the first responders, and all of the people who do not have a choice in the morning and must leave their homes, exposing themselves to a Covid risk (even if they are careful).  To them, I echo Alicia Keys and the One Voice Children's Choir - GOOD JOB!

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