I woke up this morning thinking about my former students. They live all over the place: NYC, DC, Seattle, LA, Columbus, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Detroit, Dallas, St Louis, Paris, Aspen… well you get the picture.

Many of them work for nonprofit arts organizations which means, because that industry is shut down, they are at home wondering if their jobs are safe and whether they and their families will stay healthy.

It’s a weird relationship a professor has with her students, especially when they are thrown together daily for almost two years. During that time each “class” becomes a family of sorts. They eat together, study together, party together, piss each other off, and basically create relationships that resemble siblings. I was the house mother, career counselor, task master, financial advisor, and probably also called some other things I don’t want to know about. But the bottom line is that I came to love those quirky, brilliant humans.

Now here I sit wondering how they are all doing. I hope they are ok. I pray that their families are okay. I see some of them on Instagram – one has a new puppy, one a new baby, one a new job, one is getting married. I wish I had them all back in the classroom so I could tell them how proud I am of what they have accomplished and let them know that our time together meant the world to me. I’d also tell them I wish we could go back to a simpler time when the biggest worry was writing that stupid fake grant proposal or getting the development/marketing plan finished so they could graduate.

Time slips by, lives move on, and pandemics force us to stop and think about the students who helped us grow as humans. If you are out there CCM Arts Admin, check in and let me know you’re ok. I’m worried about you.