Not Going to Miss My Shot
For those of you who are on my social media, you will already have known the news, but I could not exclude the update here- I got my first COVID Vaccine today! My wife has had her two doses and my grandmother had her first one last week, so I was anxiously awaiting my date. It was a moving target for a while but I got lucky and started the vaccination process against this horrible pandemic that is killing thousands daily.
Can we sit with that please? Can we take a moment of silence for those who have lost their lives to COVID, many of which could have been prevented if we had had better leadership and better public health messaging. I know that is controversial to say, but I am feeling controversial tonight. It didn’t have to be this way. Australia and New Zealand show us that with proper social distancing, mask wearing, testing and the like, this pandemic could be controlled even without a vaccine.
Alas, here we are. And I am incredibly grateful to have access to this shot today. Yet, conversely I’m incredibly angry that more folks don’t have the same privilege. Again, I have learned through therapy and AA program that both feelings can be true at the same time. The anger and outrage is exhausting though. I am doing all my self care tools to stay balanced and able to keep fighting the good fight, but the news has got me down.
It doesn’t help that I am getting close to a grant deadline that I’m working on as a side hustle and I’m still trying to frantically type all the stories down for this manuscript in my evenings. It is also the start to a new semester of school in which I am a Clinical Instructor so have lots on my plate for that. I guess I should give myself a break.
I am experiencing all the feels today- gratitude, anger, hope, grief, joy...thank goodness I can be present for all of it. My Grandfather’s latest postcard shows he was trying hard to see my Gram in between train stops, but didn’t work out. Oh, the simpler times then. Ha! I think each generation had their own struggles. Technology has been a blessing and a curse in regards to geocaching, but I know he sure did miss my Gram when they were a part.
