Mindy Carlson

I intended to write this post two weeks ago, but January has been A LOT.

Wasn’t January 2021 supposed to be better? Weren’t we supposed to get a fresh start? Spoilers: We didn’t.

I’m can’t even get as far into the attack in the Capitol as I’d like. It was scary. It was horrible. It was sad. I never thought I’d see the day when a sitting President would tell his most ardent followers to go and try and kill the members of Congress who disagreed with him.

And that was only the first week.

Then I got exposed to COVID and had to quarantine for two weeks. Thankfully, I never developed symptoms and I tested negative every time, but it was a long two weeks sitting in the guest room with my podcasts, Netflix, books, and the book I’m trying to edit. Oh yeah, and sitting with my anxiety about every damn thing that came into my mind. On the plus side, I got yet another confirmation that I married the best partner in the world. He kept me fed and watered, the kids completely on track, and managed to keep the country’s economy running. He’s a superhero.

During my quarantine, I got to watch the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I am old enough to remember when Geraldine Ferraro ran with Walter Mondale against Reagan. (Gather ’round, kids.) I remember a lot of people saying that she was responsible for his loss because America would never be ready to elect a woman to such a prestigious position of power. You may have heard it with Hillary, too, so that script has been going around for the last 244 years.

Some of you might be saying, “Who cares?” Well, all the women in your life care. Maybe some of them aren’t vocal about it, but it does matter to them. There are a lot of doors that are locked to women. For women of color they are deadbolted and chained. But now we have one more door that has been opened to us. Little girls born now will never know a world without a BIPOC woman as VP, just my kids live in a world where there’s always been a Black man as President. This kind of visual representation matters.

But onward, before this post becomes solely political.

After the inauguration, my category (educators) became eligible for the COVID vaccine. In an experience not unlike trying to get tickets to a Prince concert on Ticketmaster in 1995, I managed to get a spot. Elated, I went to the clinic the next day and sailed through. My arm was sore for a bit, but nothing worse than the flu shot. I haven’t had any side effects (yet–still waiting for my superpower to show up) and I feel less anxiety knowing I’m half-way there to protecting the kids in my preschool and my family.

And here we are. The end of the month. It’s been wild. As with every month, I had good intentions and yet I also have miles to go before I sleep. January has 3 days left. Let’s see how many miles I can cover.