ONE POSITIVE ONE NEGATIVE

‘Are you at work?’

‘Uh, yeah. I’m sitting at my desk’, I replied, about to answer an email.

‘You should go home. It sounds like you might have COVID. Go get tested’, she continued.

I wasn’t feeling well for a while and had been working from home for the past two days, but decided to go in to work today. My co-worker was about to turn back to go home as the traffic was really heavy but got worried about my getting the others in the office sick when I told her I’d already gone through three boxes of tissues since Friday night.

As I sat in the parking lot looking for a rapid test place near my home, I worried what a positive test would mean to my son. On the one hand, he would be overjoyed at having to stay at home for two weeks. On the other, he would possibly not be able to make up so many of the off-campus PE classes he takes at kickboxing class. Last month was difficult enough with my car being in the shop for five days and him having to make up over eight hours of missed classes.

The rapid test place lived up to its name. I stayed in my car as a lady came to my car window and explained how the process worked. It took thirteen minutes from the time I gave her the swab until I got the results.

Afterwards, I drove back home and settled into my comfy home office until my son texted me a few minutes before noon that he was really hungry and had already eaten all of his food. Since he forgot he had early morning band practice at 7,00, he went to school without having eaten breakfast. He ate both of the prosciutto sandwiches and mandarin oranges during first period, right after practice.

I quickly made him a burrito of refried beans, salsa, cheddar cheese, sour cream, and rocket leaves which I wrapped and placed in a paper bag. To that I added two chocolate Milano cookies and drove across the street to the school since the weather turned very cold today to walk.

The school did not allow my son to come see me to get his food, so I had to leave it on a cart outside in the open hallway. I texted my son and he said that his teacher did not allow him to leave, even though it was a study period with no subject being taught. I asked the attendance lady at the front office to let him leave class. She refused. My son and I exchanged rolling eye emojis before I stormed out of the school front doors, clearly displeased with their rules.

‘I got a 100% on my Texas history test’, my son texted me shortly after his lunchtime. ‘Now I have a 93% average in Texas history.’

I was proud of his efforts lately on all of his classes. He saw I wasn’t too pleased with his lack of effort for the past months so we sat down together for his math studies and he worked on the other subjects on his own. I told him about the Pomodoro technique a few weeks ago and noticed he actually used it to focus. His teachers noticed his efforts as well and let him know he’s been doing better lately.

When he came home, he told me about his test again as he was excited about having passed. I told him I failed my test. He joked that I should have studied. One positive, one negative. One fail, one pass.

He had only 30 minutes’ time to practice his saxophone before we had to drive 30 minutes to his next class. Kickboxing. It used to be fun before it became a requirement. When we both did it for fun. Now he does it on his own whilst I sit in the car and study Dutch on Duolingo as I wait for him. Not everything in life will be a success. Sometimes a negative experience can turn into a positive, but we will never know until we try.