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Goodbye Year of the Ox
My Year of Obstacles is Officially Over! Happy Lunar New Year!
The Year of the Ox started out full of promise. It looked like schools were going to reopen and that life would start to get back to whatever I thought normal was a year ago.
I mistakenly believed that the Year of the Ox would bring great things for me because it was my year. When my best friend received a well-deserved promotion, I somehow felt that I would achieve some career success as well. She and I were both born the same year. After several setbacks at my office, I wondered if other areas of my life would improve with some sort of cosmic balance.
But schools in my district didn’t open at all last school year. Lawsuits were filed and my children suffered. My son especially. This year was supposed to be his senior year but he dropped out a few months ago. He only attended one full year of high school. My daughter, who was sort of keeping up in school suffered a concussion just before her birthday and she is still feeling the effects. And then three-fourths of her varsity athletic team tested positive for COVID-19.
What more could go wrong in a year? I’ve lost too many loved ones. I didn’t realize that I only got three bereavement days a year for aunts and uncles. I used up my days early on and had to take vacation to grieve. I guess I never had more than one…
