Everyone needs a little more love these days. Today is May 7.
Even though this happened last night, I would like to give some love to my friend and co-Editor-In-Chief Anna Xu for her kindness. I was feeling a little out of sorts, so I sent her a text. Although I said she needn’t bother to call, she ended up FaceTiming me for nearly half an hour so we could talk. I had forgotten how much I miss seeing other people, and being able to simply chat (and cry) about the year with her was extremely cathartic. I am so grateful to have a wonderful soul like her in my life, and I am so thankful for everything she does.
When I woke up this morning, I quickly felt the emotional hangover of my tears. Instead of waking up refreshed and ready to start my day, I could sense I was dehydrated and emotionally raw. I don’t think I’ve really allowed myself to process the myriad ways in which the coronavirus pandemic has altered my senior year. Rather than ignoring the changes I am facing, I need to be confronting them head-on so I can deal with my disappointment and sadness in order to prevent it from building up and affecting the rest of my life.
I like having problems I can solve with clear, quick answers, so I’ve never really been the best when it comes to the emotional side of an issue. With all this spare time I seem to have now, I think I should start devoting some of it to improving my mental health and emotional well-being so I don’t end up exploding from too many compartmentalized feelings one of these days.
As the day wore on, I decided I hadn’t done much with my hands and was feeling a bit antsy. I headed to the kitchen to see what I could make. Because I apparently only know how to bake two items (banana bread and cookies), I opted to whip up a loaf of banana bread. The more I work with a recipe, the more comfortable I become with experimentation. Instead of only including the basic ingredients, I also added in vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg and used pecans rather than walnuts. I was quite pleased with the final result, so I can’t wait to make the dish again some time to figure out what other flavors will improve it further.
In the afternoon, eight of the newspaper staff’s seniors (including myself) surprised our teacher and advisor, Robin Stover, with a Bruin of My Life award. She has done so much for all of us this year, so we thought this was the least we could do for her. We sat and stood around in our front yard talking, laughing and staying a safe distance away from one another. I wished I could go up to everyone and give them each a big hug, but I decided that probably wouldn’t be all that socially (or medically) acceptable.
Stover seemed so happy that we had done this for her. We had also created a short video ahead of time to share with her, too, so once everyone had left, I showed it to her. She told me this was only the second time in her RBHS career she has gotten the award, though she’s been nominated several times before. Knowing this made me feel like we’d gotten to do something really special for her, and I am so thankful the other seniors took time to visit, make signs and show Stover how much we all love her. I can’t think of a better group of people to have had the honor of working with this past year, and I hope all of the newspaper kids know how much I appreciate them. No matter where we go or what we end up doing in the future, I wish for each and every one of them to be able to think back and recall fond memories of their time on staff.
“If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.” ― Dolly Parton[TS_VCSC_Lightbox_Gallery content_images=”330937,330936,330935,330934,330933,330932,330931″ content_images_size=”full” content_images_titledata=”caption” content_title=”A glimpse into Bailey Stover’s 51st day of social distancing” data_grid_preloader=”-1″ lightbox_title=”caption” lightbox_effect=”simpleSwitch”][/TS_VCSC_Lightbox_Gallery][penci_text_block block_title_align=”style-title-left”]How did you spend your 51st day of social distancing? Let us know in the comments below.[/penci_text_block]
