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The Keyboard of Life

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 By Alix Stuart            

Try this, hit the computer space bar, then scroll back up. Just try it. S P A C E. Hit it a few times. What if instead of putting a space into a document, it deleted a character. Now after years of using the keyboard one way, getting used to typing differently will take time. 

With space between normality and reality rapidly increasing amongst the new regulations with coronavirus, God is in control and always has His hands on the keyboard.

Mr. Brewster, Dalat’s high school principal, perfectly explains the struggles of social distancing, a new reality on Dalat campus: “Afterschool social-distancing has not gone well. It’s not surprising. It is unnatural to stand far apart; it is hard to hear each other through a mask; the rule does not always make sense, and sometimes you just forget.”

Change is hard. Changing habits is even harder. Not giving high fives and “hugging” from a distance is weird. Not being able to sit next to someone at a desk is not normal. On top of that, masks are required when talking to someone? Frustrating!

A space on the computer is just a few pixels. Social distancing requires more than just a few pixels of space but a recommended six feet between everyone! Now imagine being a STEP student, doing online school across the world from their friends, over ten thousand miles away. Space is relative. That six feet away from each other may feel like a mile, but it is keeping Dalat from closing again.

It may feel like God is miles away, living somewhere in the abyss above us, above space, far away. He has access to the “keyboard of life” to change events, but He doesn’t? He has His reasons, and He calls His people to follow Him anyway. 

Mr. Brewster further explains the situation with social distancing at Dalat, and the observation is discouraging: “A result that I dislike is that there has been a lot of frustration between students just hanging around and teachers who seek compliance [with the new social distancing rules].”

This whole situation is aggravating. School, something that isn’t always looked forward to, but was always there, bustling with students, is being threatened and changed. Change is difficult. All the activities students look forward to are being taken away: sports, lunch all together, SEW, normal chapel, and just hanging out with each other after school. These experiences were taken for granted. Not having them now, while frustration is a reasonable reaction to the situation, directing that frustration at each other does nothing. It is important to value being together. 

Remember, being a few feet apart is better than attending class through a screen all day. Enjoy being back. Enjoy being together.

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