Now that my brother did his "shift" in Puerto Rico, and my sister completes hers today, I'll be on my way - si Dios quiere - before dawn tomorrow to take the baton, so to speak, see my papi and mami and get some very welcomed calorcito boricua, too.
I'll be there for almost three weeks (Wow! Not counting the years I was sick and living with my parents, I haven't been home for this long since college!) so I hope to have good news about my papi's progress, which seems to be viento en popa (my sister said he walked for the first time since the surgery today). And I also hope to get the chance to take plenty of pictures of my beautiful island to share with you as the situation becomes more stabilized, as it seems like it will.
These have been a tough 2 or 3 weeks, I can't even remember how long. Sometimes I've felt like the last thing I thought I could do was to walk into my classroom and pretend that I didn't want to crawl under my bed and cry and cry and cry. But teaching and meetings and prep work have all been effective, if exhausting, distractions from the difficulties and heartaches of my papi's illness.
As my last day winds down here and I get ready to teach my final class of the week, which is also the last class until we come back from spring break in March, I'm starting to look forward to a much-needed respite from the demands of my small college on the hill, which have been piled several layers on top of the demands of being an eldest daughter in absentia.
That absentia ends tomorrow so I'll finally feel like I'll be able to fulfill my role as it should be. Dr. S, meanwhile, has very generously volunteered to teach two of my classes next week, and I've already scheduled make-up classes for when we return, so it's time now to finally focus on my family. I'm hoping for the best!
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