Dear Students,
I have a note from April of 2020 saved on top of my dresser. My then-13-year-old son scribbled it out on a Post-it and left it for me on our dining room table while I was holed up in my bedroom teaching on Zoom.
It reads: “Mom, I went outside. I took hand sanitizer. I will social distance. Love, Mateo.”
Back then, I had a tight knot of panic in my stomach every time my teenagers left our apartment. I feared they would catch COVID and unknowingly infect their grandmother (who lives with us and who was undergoing chemotherapy at the time). I quizzed them relentlessly about their social distancing habits and Purell supply. (Clearly, Mateo was trying to preempt my next onslaught of questions.) I feared they would play the way kids do and break something (a wrist, an ankle) and I wouldn’t be able to get them the necessary medical treatment. At the time, the hospitals in NYC were overrun with COVID patients.
“Be careful!” I would admonish them as they tried to slip out the door quickly, silently, without catching my attention, “Don’t fall down and need stitches. There is no room for you at the hospital. Do you understand? Do you understand?!?!” Javier, my older son, said I was unbearable during those months. I remember knowing I was being unbearable and simultaneously feeling helpless to act differently.
The latest news on the Omicron variant and the rise in breakthrough COVID cases might make us all feel a sense of unwanted déjà vu. Not knowing what will happen next with the pandemic and how it will affect our lives can be disconcerting and anxiety-provoking.
I remember what it felt like in New York City in April of 2020. December 2021 is not the same. We have COVID vaccines, boosters, treatments and mitigation strategies that help us stay healthy and/or recover from illness quickly. We have had a successful in-person semester at TC. We have commuted to work and to school and traveled for fun. We have spent time with family and friends in-person and hugged each other again. We have seen Broadway shows and live music and gone to the movies in theaters that are not our living rooms. We have seen each other regularly in 3-D, even if we don’t always know what each other’s noses and chins look like.
At the same time, this semester has not been easy. I have heard how challenging and complicated your lives are and how much you are managing at school, at work, and at home. I know that none of us feel at our best all the time—and maybe not even most of the time—and that the mental health pandemic, like the COVID pandemic, touches our community too.
But when I am feeling particularly down, I remind myself to think of the sound of all of you talking—and laughing!—together in the classroom at TC. I remember your excited faces (well, half-faces) at our in-person welcome back reception in October. I remember meeting with many of you for advising sessions in Russell Courtyard, where we could safely mingle without masks.
I remind myself of your continued resilience and strength over these last difficult months. I have watched you all navigate frequent pivots between in-person and remote learning with aplomb. I have seen you jump in with enthusiasm on Zoom S-OP social events, our career boost lunch series, and the recent DEIA alumni panel. I have heard your words of encouragement and support amid the many hardships this semester, like the small COVID outbreak among our own students. And, I have watched you engage each other through masks and across distances in the classroom, and at the in-person group relations conference, to learn from one another and to forge new relationships as colleagues and friends.
In my December 2020 newsletter I printed lyrics from the Counting Crows’ song “A Long December,” which kept playing in my head at the time. The same song has returned as my December 2021 earworm.
And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can’t remember all the times I tried to tell myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass
The lyrics remind me that hope and gratitude are always possible, and maybe, most especially, during these times.
I speak for all my faculty and staff colleagues when I tell you that you, our students, are the best of us. We are grateful for you and keenly hopeful for our upcoming shared new year of working and learning together. We wish you rest, relaxation, peace and joy over the winter break. See you in 2022!
Warmly,
Current Student Profile
Alumni Profile
Recommended Readings
Before diving into this month's recommended reading/listening, cozy up with the Fireplace in John Jay Hall. This historic fireplace is the ideal background to bring you the warmth of Columbia no matter where you are this winter season!
To follow up on November 2021's Newsletter which mentioned Lord of the Flies by William Golding, this article by Rutger Bregman details the real lord of the flies, recommended by Dr. Peter Coleman.
The following podcast recommendations are courtesy of students in the Fall 2021 Group Dynamics course and are a selection from a more complete list located here. The ones below were recommended by multiple people. Here's hoping you can tune in to one or more of them over the winter break.