Yo, Miss! (No. 7)

The Countdown to Another New Year

Dec 20, 2022

I will forever remember 2021 as the last year that I would say:

“This is going to be MY year!”

Yes, I am all for manifesting and positive affirmations (at least according to my TikTok algorithm). However, thanks to how 2021 turned out with that global pandemic, I will never make such grand statements about an incoming year ever again.

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As a history teacher, I spend a large portion of my days trying to get my students to ponder the significance of various chunks of time in the past. Historians have found ways to organize past eras into categories (although there are often disputes about the exact dates), for example: “The Critical Period” (1783 to 1789), “The Antebellum Period” (1812 to the Civil War in 1861), or even fast-forwarding a bit, “The Postwar Era” (1945-1968). These neatly defined periods are helpful in helping my students understand history.

However, I make sure to remind my students that people living during various time periods that we study did not actually realize they were living in the “Antebellum Period” - only in retrospect do major events in history seem inevitable.

At any time, individuals and groups can alter the course of human events. I never want my students to feel like history just happens. I want them to realize that they too can be agents of change.

Abraham Lincoln Art created by my students last week

So, when I start thinking about how to define 2022, I am cognizant of the fact that we will need more time to fully understand the significance of the year. But, I always enjoy think pieces and first impressions about the (very!) recent past:

The Cut has defined 2022 as “The Year Men Flopped”

The New York Times has declared 2022 as “The Year We Lost It”

Merriam-Webster’s 2022 Word of the Year is “gaslighting”

What happens in the 2024 election cycle will change how we view 2022. Also, if in 2023 Trump is criminally prosecuted for all of his crimes, it will alter how we see this year as well.

I would also not be on brand if I didn’t mention that 2022 was also the year that public school teachers who wanted to teach the truth and make every one of their students feel accepted in class became one of the right wing’s favorite boogeyman.

Personally, this was the year that I ventured back into the world after being quite cautious during the early days of the pandemic. I returned to my gym, wondering how I spent all these hours when I still had my membership on pause. I started seeing friends and family again on a more regular basis. I also began going back to see live music.

Spending lots of time confined to my cozy studio by myself throughout the heart of the lockdown phase of Covid challenged me. However, I tried to use my time productively, in between lots of crying and staring at walls and Zoom screens. For example, I wrote about what it was like to teach online in my PBS NewsHour Classroom column, “Teaching in the Age of the Coronavirus.”

I ultimately feel much stronger and self-contained as a result of making it through the pandemic mostly by myself. Definitely NOT what I meant on January 1, 2021 when I proclaimed along with probably everyone else reading this newsletter: “2021 is going to be MY year!”