Sunday, February 27, 2022
Wait, I've be doing this for how long, or...
17 years?!
Well, yes, it has been 17 years since I started this blog, and while I never went viral, I never got fired either, so let's call this a win. I haven't written much since the pandemic started, as so much of what I thought wasn't that important. Also, I cannot believe the extent to which the world changed, and I can only blame some of it on Covid-19. To my knowledge, I never caught it, though I did get very sick in November of 2019 while driving for the college to Buffalo. We took a side trip to Niagara Falls, and I was surrounded by Asian and Indian tourists. Also, I was bathed in very cold and damp air from the Falls, all while wearing a jacket from New Balance that looked like it could be used for Artic exploration, but was as warming as a wet sheet. It's a great housecoat, but has zero protection from the wind. I would have been better off in a light windbreaker.
All this added up to a very serious and lengthy lung infection. I was sick for weeks, with diminished lung capacity, fever, an unproductive (dry) cough, and cycles of improvement, then getting sick again. As I recall, it took 6 weeks for me to feel better, and weeks after that to completely recover. I cannot say it was Covid, but I never got it after that, and the virus did appear in November of 2019, so it's possible.
With the belated marking of this blog's anniversary, and my impotent rage passes, comes the hope that I will begin writing again, if only for my own benefit. This was a small taste of what I've said was coming on so many levels, and there's so much ground to cover: personal, professional, political, and pecuniary. Where was I wrong? The list is ever increasing. Where was I right? Not as many places as I care to admit. Where did my preparations help? There's one specific answer that surprised me, but I (really, truly, desperately) hope to find more. Where did I not do enough? This one hurts, and it will hurt for a long time. What happened at the college? Grrrr. What happened to higher education generally? We all had our eyes open, that's for sure, and the news was not good. What has happened and will continue to happen to our society and to the children? I really don't want to get into it. Also, I don't want to punch my computer. What did governments do wrong? Ditto, squared, and I need this laptop. What did governments do right? This may be too soon to explore, even counting vaccines. What did I learn? Not as much as one might think.
These questions, and the often painful answers they engender, will provide the map for the blog going forward. The losses we've all suffered have been enormous. I am not the person I was in March of 2020, but who is? This is one of those vacuous statements that sounds pithy and wise, but isn't. Time makes fools of us all is another. No, what I'm really trying to say is that I'm diminished: my world is smaller, and the person I thought I was not the person I turned out to be. I failed, and that will haunt me forever.
With that, let's turn our attention to my field of expertise: financial aid, and what has happened since I last wrote.
