Ending a Chapter

Katrina Rudd ’20
Assistant Director of Social Media, University Marketing and Communications

It’s Easter Sunday 2021. I got my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine today at the Moscone Center and on my walk home, I happened to meander past Grace Cathedral on California St. in San Francisco. I’m not religious, and I can’t remember the last time I attended Easter Mass. Nonetheless, I was drawn to the towering golden doors of the Cathedral.

I walked up the steps and as I took in my surroundings I began to reflect on the Chapter we just lived through. Chapter with a capital “C”.

A Chapter that will be remembered for decades and even centuries to come as significant. A Chapter, that as my second dose begins to sore my arm, finally seems may come to a close.

As I peered up at the sacred structure, Cathedral bells chiming around me, I thought about how I am, by all accounts, one of the very lucky ones.

All of my friends and family are healthy and have been since the beginning of the pandemic. I managed to find and keep a job that I love and I live with a dear friend in a city that remains incredible even with shuttered doors and quieted streets. The “suffering” I have endured can merely be chalked up to a bit of loneliness and boredom. Nothing in comparison to the real and tragic loss that so many many more have come to associate with this Chapter.

By another stroke of luck I even qualified for the vaccine earlier than most of my friends and family members. Possibly the greatest perk to-date of working in education. In 11 days the state will open vaccine eligibility to all residents. Slowly but surely as Spring settles in, the world will begin to defrost, hopefully along with my seldom used social skills.

I walked away from the Cathedral and the rest of the way home with an overwhelming and crushing feeling of gratitude. The Chapter hasn’t ended yet but we are getting close. And next Easter Sunday, though I doubt I’ll be wearing a mask, I hope I remember the gratitude. I hope I never forget the gratitude and I hope I bring it with me, wrapped around me, and arming me, as we embark on the next Chapter—whenever that may be.