Thursday, December 08, 2016

A New Blog

On election night, we were in the middle of a two-night stint of Parent Teacher Conferences. Yes, worst scheduling ever. Ever. My emotions on Tuesday and Wednesday of that week were difficult to express because they were so difficult to feel. I think it is safe to say that I've never felt the way I have before in those 48 hours, particularly with the swings in emotion that I experienced.

Additionally, my sweet Plant Boy was out of town. My sister was in the middle of a potential cancer diagnosis (which amounted to almost nothing, by the way) and isn't really connected to politics anyway. My mom had just left on her mission to New Zealand. On the day after the election (Day 1) I've come to call it, I observed many things among students, parents and teachers. My observations helped me to see that our smallish, sometimes struggling school in a little Oregon city was a microcosm for so many larger issues. Immigration. Unemployment. Lack of eduction. Diversity and its challenges. Liberalism and conservatism at loggerheads. Loss of middle class work. Expenses of college. Etc. Etc. During the day I wrote down many thoughts.

When I came home that night I started a blog called DearestMadamPresident. Dear Hillary and Dear Madam President were taken. I just started writing my thoughts down, in letter format, as is Mrs. Clinton was going to be reading them.

I have found it enormously therapeutic and a way to express some of my thoughts of recent weeks. No doubt some of you read this and think, "The election? She's still on about that? That was like, so, last month."

I agree with you. I wish I could think if it terms of being "old news." I'm not there yet. I'm not sure how long it will take me to fully process what is happening in our country. In the meantime, I'm going to write. It seems to help.