I’m Looking Forward to the Part Where My Inner Strength Kicks In

They say that this experience will make us better people — but right now, I’m a mess

Corinne Purtill
Forge

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Photo: Maryna Andriichenko/Getty Images

Last night I was texting with a friend who is also a working parent about school closures and this strange new world in which we now find ourselves. She shared something lovely that another friend had sent her, and told me that for her, it had been a great source of strength the past few days:

Whatever is coming, I think there might be something cathartic in realizing that we can get through something hard. That there is still love and joy and sunshine in hard times. And that we have reservoirs of strength we’re not usually aware of.

It was beautiful. She was right. It was exactly what I needed to hear. And I cannot wait until we get to that part of this global pandemic because right now, I am a mess.

The kids are going to be home for weeks. Possibly months. Teaching, special-needs therapies, and all the things that qualified and trained adults do as their full-time jobs are now going to be my job, in my self-quarantined house, while I’m also trying to do the job I’m trained and paid to do. So far, everyone in my family is well, but I have yet to fully consider the possibility that we or any number of the people we love…

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Corinne Purtill
Forge
Writer for

Journalist with words at Time, Quartz, and elsewhere. Author of Ghosts in the Forest, a Kindle Single.