Blogocentric Formulations

Uplift

"30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  | May 1

Prompt ▼

Tell us something uplifting! We need good news now more than ever. What is something positive that happened or is about to happen in your life? What has made you smile recently?

This is going to sound a little strange, but getting furloughed from my job has been the most positive thing in my life lately.

I should probably explain.

About three weeks ago, my company announced that it was furloughing roughly half of its employees in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. I should stipulate that I am of course upset about the company deciding that I'm not necessary, and naturally worried that unemployment benefits and our savings account might run out before the furlough ends since everything with this pandemic is so up in the air right now.

That said, the one piece of certainty we did get was that my wife and son's school moved to remote instruction for the rest of the school year, which means she's spending literally every day from 8AM to 4PM locked away in our bedroom working on her own classes while I was spending those same hours with our son making sure he's paying attention to his lessons via videoconference, getting his independent work done, staying focused and entertained and fed throughout the day, etc. And, up until this furlough, I was also trying to work full-time from home, which meant I was either frantically alternating between the two tasks, or trying to cram in a full day of work from 4PM to roughly 11PM or midnight, desperately trying to catch up on all the stuff I missed earlier in the day.

So, in a way, the furlough has proved to include a bit of a silver lining. I can now focus on my son and his schooling without having that work pressure in the background and during the evenings. He has three more weeks of school left after this week and current projections are hinting at a return to work sometime in June, so the timing of this whole thing is actually pretty good. There will be a ton of stuff to deal with after the world starts up again, but for the immediate future of the next handful of weeks, this furlough has provided our family with a workable dynamic that allows us to get everything done. My wife can get her teaching done during the day, my son gets his schooling done during the day, and we all have the evenings together as a family once the school day is finished.

Even though some aspects of this situation aren't ideal (I decided not to be a kindergarten teacher for a reason... reasons I am now all too aware of! ) and even though we're all ready to get out of the house, go back to work, resume life out in the world, etc., there have been some really nice silver linings in the interim. Dinners together in the evening as a family have been great, as has not having to spend 3-4 hours in the car commuting every day.

The world is still an uncertain and worrisome place right now, and we certainly have our own set of stressors and concerns that occupy the back of our minds, but we're trying to look for the positives and appreciate the things we do have.