315 days

It's been 315 days since my kids saw the inside of a classroom. It's been 315 days since I last went to work inside a building, at a job I loved. It's been 315 days since my kids were able to play a sport or compete. It's been 315 days since we have been able to sit and eat inside a restaurant. It's been 315 days since we've been stuck in this pandemic hell.  

I am done. 

Everything around me is closing, left and right. I can't go to the gym but people can go to the mall. My kids cant go to school or play on a playground, but city officials allow riots and protests, daily. I can't travel across state lines without having to quarantine for 14 days when I get home, but our county commissioners can take vacations to Mexico or Hawaii and get paid the entire time. Colleges are still giving out scholarships for students across the nation while our kids are sitting at home contemplating suicide from being isolated for so long. 

How does any of this make sense?  

We are required to wear masks, "social distance" and refuse to see our family members outside our own house. We are required to wear masks outside, in the fresh air, where our lungs can breathe to try and better our mental and physical health. We are required to stand 6 feet apart in a line in a grocery store after we all just touched the same produce we will go home and eat. We are required to make sacrifices from our jobs so that we can ensure our kids are engaging in distance learning for school or pay thousands of dollars to hire a tutor so that they don't fall behind, while the rest of the world moves forward. We are required to continue to make a living while jobs are being furloughed, eliminated or businesses closed for good. 

When does the madness end? 

The last 315 days have been the hardest days of my life, but I fear the worst is yet to come. As a parent, I refuse to sit on the sidelines and stay quiet and conform. Our kids are suffering. Our small business are dying. Our economy has been decimated. We MUST do better as a city, a state, a nation.  The outlook is bleak and there aren't many options left. Something has to change before it's too late...and it's getting too late.

My kids deserve better. They deserve to be in school. They deserve to be playing sports. They deserve to be in the running for the scholarships and apply to the colleges without penalty. They deserve to touch all the things, do all the things, see all the things. They deserve to be unmasked to play with their friends, run free at the park or ride their bikes around town. They deserve to be a kid.

315 days is 315 days too many. I've been here for 35 years and never in my life have I wanted to leave more than I do right now and that is exactly what I plan to do. 

Adios Oregon. It's you, not me. 

xoxo, 
T