"Then the child moved ten times round the seasons"... Joni Mitchell "The Circle Game"
Dear 10-Year Old Girl,
Last night as you fell asleep on couch, feet on my lap, I
counted your toes, just as I did a decade ago.
I traced their every curve and breathed you in. As we settle into month six of this pandemic,
a state no one could ever predict, I am counting toes and blessings. I am thankful that as of today, we and those
closest to us are all healthy and safe.
I am thankful for the communities that have kept us whole and enabled
you to thrive, in these unimaginable circumstances.
Even in our protective bubble, you have found your way. Prior to March you were beginning to emerge
from your little-girl cocoon and spreading your growing wings. You now need us in different ways, no longer
to tie shoes and button sweaters but to help you with complex fractions and
navigating social media. Suddenly your
bedroom has become your oasis, you tell us you keep the door closed to keep the
cats out and that is okay, we believe you.
No longer a room of doll houses and cradles, they have been relegated to
the basement to make room for a fancy couch and sheepskin rug. And soon the purple paint, picked out by your
4-year-old self will make way for a 10-year old blue.
The early days of quarantine brought on a new network of
group chats and endless text messages as you and your gaggle of girls found new
ways to stay connected. The TikTok
tsunami has burst into our home, accompanied by Insta and a birthday gift of
every young girl’s dream, your very own phone number and due to convenient defect,
a brand-new phone.
As I watch you now dancing in the late summer sun, I am in awe of your resilience. While there have certainly been bumps, and a few times it felt like we were sliding off the cliff, you always bounced back. With vacations cancelled, and social interactions curtailed, you found new ways to express yourself. After a terrible night of violence in a summer of explosive racial tension, you became a young advocate. You researched George Floyd and wrote your own treatise on the unfair treatment of black people in our country. In your journey you also became interested in the women’s liberation movement and the fight for equality.
So proud of you, I continue to hold on tight, while letting
go. Last week brought the 1st day of middle school, no more cubbies and
classrooms with furry friends. Now you have
a daily schedule to navigate, and at the end of the day, can leave campus on
your own. And this is all happening
while we are still very much in the middle of a global pandemic. We are grateful for SCH and the herculean
effort that has gone into creating a road map, meticulously developed with the
driving initiative to get you all back on campus safely.
This summer has been a gift. While trips were cancelled and that was sure hard, we created new ways to escape together. Endless movie nights, outdoors and in. We transformed our backyard into a place to slip and slide, cozy up and run obstacle courses. And we are grateful for a couple of weekend getaways to the beach and the much-needed visits of Grama and Kelly and Henry, which felt like pure oxygen and filled our cups.
