You may think that no one noticed,
But the fact is that you’re wrong,
I saw you. I saw it all,
The times you pretended to be strong
When you watched the news and wondered
If you’d be safe at work that day.
When people were sick and you were scared,
But you showed up anyway.
When it was hard, when you felt lost
When you worked late, when you were tired,
When you were stretched thin, when you were broken,
When you were weary, worn, and wired.
When you taught to empty chairs and Chromebook screens
And no one laughed at any of your jokes
When your computer glitched and your heart sank
That’s when I saw you. I saw you most.
Sometimes someone will thank you,
And then sometimes no one will.
And sometimes you think you can’t go on,
But somehow you do it still.
And now things are getting better,
But yet the future is unclear,
Seems change is the only constant,
And we must face the things we fear.
So if you think that no one noticed,
And you think that no one cares.
You’re wrong. So very wrong,
You didn’t see me, but I was there.
I saw you and what you did
This was a year quite like no other
It was tough, so very tough
But it turns out that we were tougher.
Jennifer Kleinknecht has been the media specialist at H.B. Whitehorne Middle School since 2007. She writes about life as a school librarian on her blog, “The ‘Yes’ Librarian”.
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash
