For about the last year and a half, living through this pandemic would have been so much harder without the verbal and emotional outreach that friends and family offered to me: I appreciate having people in my life who wanted to just check in and talk.
On a related note: for me, it’s important to engage with communities, especially where I work and in professional development, that are not just all talk but actually do put into practice what they say–who stand up for the values they claim.
“Care” has been tossed around a lot during this pandemic; unfortunately, I’m concerned with schools and other academic groups claiming they care but who are not actually putting in work needed to care for people who can’t afford to get infected with COVID.
COVID remains a danger for all of us in education, and I hope more schools and other academic groups put in the effort, not just the talk, to create work and learning environments devoted to both education and protecting people from this damn pandemic. That is what caring means.
Derek S. McGrath 
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