Lament their losses, or celebrate their gains: One opinion on a different kind of school year

Second unpopular opinion post today. Bear with me.

OPINION: By Dianne Bomar – (First published on social media, but shared here for publication on Loveland Beacon)

LOVELAND, OH (August 12, 2020) – I see so many posts starting with:  “I am heartbroken for my kindergartner/senior/eighth grader. They aren’t being allowed to play sports/see their friends/be in a *normal* classroom. It is just so awful for them.”

So here’s my take, FWIW (for what it’s worth).  Instead of being “heartbroken” and lamenting their “losses”, in front of those same kids, we change it up. Make this about the GAINS they are making. The important SKILLS they are learning (which, as a side note, many of my generation and the one behind me, never did), the COPING MECHANISMS they are learning, embracing, and creating in this new reality.

This generation of young people will have faced an unprecedented and life-changing event and will come out of it with abilities we never had. They’ll come out of this with new paths, with broken molds, with determination and patience from which we can all learn and grow.

Time to CELEBRATE what is going to come for these young people, the world they will create with these skills and competencies which are very different from the ones we have had. I trust they will not repeat the mistakes of my generation, because they will have seen our failures.

Dianne Bomar is a photographer and owner of The New Studio and You See Photography, Inc. on Wards-Corner Road in Loveland. She is well-known throughout the Loveland community for her portrait photography as well as photographing numerous public and private events. Dianne is also Area Coordinator for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep – offering the very compassionate gift of remembrance photos for parents experiencing the death of a baby.

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