Whew! It’s the obligatory response to all reflections of this year, right? Holding the varied challenges of a year like this, one of the default responses is to put it behind us and hope to forget as much as we can. It sometimes feels like the easiest thing is to wipe it all away. Because my own first two years at EMU have been impacted by COVID, I recently said to a colleague “Let’s just pretend next year is my first year.”  But on my better days, I want to resist that instinct. When we look back on this school year, I hope we remember. 

I imagine we will try to recall events of this year and not be able to clearly remember the order and timeline of how things have occurred. Time, in so many ways, has felt rushed and delayed, blurry and painfully crisp. Our perfect grasp of time escaped. We lost some control and became more innovative. We didn’t know what day it was, but we slowed down. I hope we remember that every loss of this year is not a shortfall.

You’ll look at your transcripts and see letter grades, but I hope you remember the courage beneath those grades. It has required more energy and intention to be well and do well this year. You practiced self care, paying attention to what you needed.  The flexibility, patience, and endurance you earned this year will translate to all sorts of moments in life.  

I hope we remember our shared persistence towards community. Whether six feet apart, on Zoom, household groups, or in GroupMe- we found ways to learn, laugh, pray and connect despite our distances. We remained together. 

We missed a lot. Crowded classrooms. The three point buzzer in Yoder. Spring break. Piling up to return lunch trays. Goodbye hugs. Collectively feeling the vibrations of Dr. Berry’s piano solos. As those opportunities cycle back to us, I hope we remember their absence in new appreciation for their presence. 

Our memories of this year will include sadness and pride, anger and companionship. I hope we remember how all these feelings live together, never replacing or ignoring one another. The deep complexity of what we’ve felt reveals the breadth of life and our capacities within it. This year, if nothing else, we have been fully human.

I hope we remember. Remembering is a practice we engage often, sometimes to take out the trash and other times about a person we miss deeply. It lives throughout our cultures, from Mexican Dia de los Muertos to Christian communion. In the same spirit, I invite our remembering. I invite us to remember in the ways that allow us to connect to ourselves and to each other. Remembering is a spiritual practice. It is the matter that connects us. It reminds us of relationship. Our memories hold us together as we recall all that has been. And they reinforce what has shaped our current being. So I hope we remember. Because I hope we remain connected to the people and moments that keep shaping our beings. This is the work of being community.