Today was such a big day, especially for Emmett. I haven’t mentioned this in a little while because I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Today was the moment of truth and here’s what happened.

State testing is ridiculously mandatory this year, despite the pandemic. I have made my thoughts on that quite clear. It’s flat out fucking stupid that we didn’t skip testing this year. We know the scores are going to be lower but it’s because our kids were surviving a fucking pandemic, not because they’re incapable of learning or the teachers aren’t doing their jobs.

Sorry, I get pretty fired up about this but I digress.

Anyway, Emmett was required to return to school for the testing process and he will be required in and off for the next couple of weeks.

Emmett was nervous but with a little help, he felt better and was even excited about going. I dropped him off and went back to pick him up when it was time. He came out of the building and had a few concerns about some things he saw while he was there. After talking to him about it, I called the school and they immediately addressed them and he feels much better.

Here’s the kicker. Emmett wants to return to class in person for the remainder of the year and I think I’m gonna let him. They asked me if he wanted to do in person tomorrow and he said yes. I told him we can give it a try.

He needs this. It’s been well over a year since he’s seen his friends and set foot into the classroom. I feel like he needs for his emotional health and wellbeing. This would all be subject to the current COVID status in our area and currently, it looks like we’re in pretty good shape. If that changes, then I will reevaluate this decision.

For the moment, Emmett is really excited to have a chance to be in his classroom again. We’ll take it one day at a time and see how it goes.

I feel really good about this and while Elliott won’t have the same opportunity because his school won’t reopen for in person learning this year, he will hopefully return in the Fall.

Do I know for sure that I made the right decision? No I don’t. The thing is that there’s not an instruction manual for things like this and all we can do is take this one day at a time.