There are a lot of things I’ve adjusted to since we entered the pandemic in March, 2020.
I’ve adjusted to wearing masks (no big deal…).
I’ve adjusted to Zoom meetings.
I’ve adjusted to surprise changes in teaching modality.
But there area a few things I keep forgetting, 18 months on.
I keep forgetting I can’t dampen a finger to turn pages with a mask on.
I keep forgetting – or at least keep getting surprised by – what people look like under their masks. There are now people I’ve worked together with for over a year whom I’ve rarely seen maskless.
And I keep forgetting about the massive loss in institutional memory that comes from our pandemic year. The Jazz Night I conducted at tonight as the peak of the semester of work at GRCC was the first in two years – and only one of my current students has previously performed at or even attended the event. There have been so very many experiences of me saying, “Oh right, none of you have done this” in every single ensemble I conduct. The perspective, the understanding, the institutional memory has to be rebuilt from the ground up.
I keep forgetting that. I know that after this has all shaken out, I’ll never take institutional memory for granted again. It’s amazing how much easier it makes so many things.