After a loss, you don’t have to be okay by a certain date. Grief doesn’t follow a school calendar.

Grief has no schedule, and the ordinary world keeps running on one anyway. School weeks, seasons and other people’s attention all move at a pace that has nothing to do with where you are, which can leave you feeling late to your own recovery. Being further along by now is not something anybody gets to require of you.

If you are carrying something, you might let the deadline go and take the week as it comes. Telling one person what is actually true helps more than telling everyone what is expected. Some days will be fine and some will not, and neither means you are doing this wrong.