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\"The kids are struggling in terms of this whole new reality and not being in their routine, not seeing their friends every day and not getting up and going to school,\" she said. \"I think that's the biggest struggle [for teachers], how do we stay connected with our students in a way that is meaningful and matters as much as our face to face time in the classroom does?\"

\"We are all missing our kids,\" she said of herself and her fellow teachers.

Living life differently in the new normal

With the absence of commutes, activities and a social calendar to keep up with, Meany has rediscovered self-care, finding it in small and surprising ways.

\"It's not always about going to the spa or this big picture of what self-care is supposed to look like,\" she said. \"For me, it's getting up early ... doing stuff before my own kids get up and then we're able to have breakfast together before we kind of start our respective days.\"

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A post shared by Cheryl Meany (@swayze16) on Apr 12, 2020 at 5:28am PDT

\"We also get to have dinner together every night, which I know I'm not sure that people would put that under self-care, but I do because that's a luxury that we did not have prior to all of this,\" she added.

Finding herself at home in the afternoon after school, Meany has started running with a friend who lives outside the state, doing daily runs at the same time, with their headphones in, connecting to each other via an app. She is also staying up later to do Zoom happy hours with friends and family members or watching something on TV or reading, things she did not have time to do when she had to be up early to commute to school.

Self-care and saying yes to what's important are two practices Meany says she plans to continue as life moves forward in this new normal.

\"PHOTO:
Fasulo Photography
PHOTO: Cheryl and Jason Meany pose with their three daughters.
>

\"I hope that moving forward when things do get back to 'normal,' that we focus on those things that we realized really matter and that the way we have chosen to spend our time that really matters and we forget about all the other stuff,\" she said. \"Say yes to things that are important to us and say no to things that we can say no to.\"

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