Did I point my kids to the wrong North Star?

LOOKING BACK, MAYBE I SHOULDN’T HAVE USED THE phrase when this is over quite so often when talking about the pandemic with my kids.

It wasn’t that I thought everything would return to the status quo, or that the status quo was anything to be content with. And it wasn’t that I believed we would remain unaltered after COVID-19 upended our routines and sense of safety. But part of what kept us going through the first year of pandemic—through grief and loneliness, remote work and learning—was the hope of life after. Even when it became clear that millions of Americans were unwilling to take basic precautions to limit the spread of the virus, I still believed that most would get vaccinated as soon as they were able—to protect themselves, if the collective good couldn’t sway them.

So when my children asked, “When will this be over?”