Quarantine and the “New Normal”
The human’s innate ability to adjust, readjust, adjust again and so on and so forth is truly wild. I think most of the time, we forget just how capable we are of evolving with our environments. Even those of us who are paralyzed by change are able to pivot in the worst, most hopeless circumstances. Being able to so easily adapt is one of the more amazing qualities each and every one of us has but quickly forget because getting (and staying) comfortable is easier.
Two months ago (although it should’ve been 4-6 months ago, but we’ll leave that alone), we were all more or less coerced into staying home. And not staying home like how some weekends you just like to stay home and “do you,” as the kids say. This wasn’t a choice. This was a government mandate. To “stop the spread,” “flatten the curve,” “slow infection,” we were asked but mostly told to please stay home. Shelter in place. Become one with your current house because you were about to be spending a lot of time in it. One day, we went from commuting to work, sitting on toilet seats our coworkers had just been sitting on, sharing close conversations over soggy, homemade salads, and counting down the days to the weekend so we could blow our hard-earned money on mediocre meals and one too many drinks we definitely didn’t need but drank anyway, just to say we did something. That we were out and about. That we were living life. The next day, we were being shamed for showing our faces in public at all and being told we weren’t allowed to do that anymore. They didn’t give us an end date, but we figured it’d be a month or two.
Not three. Not four or five or, fuck, nine. The quarantine was initially met with shock. The first quarantine weekend was one of the loneliest we’ve ever experienced. Although we weren’t in the habit of socializing on weeknights, they suddenly became deafeningly silent, leaving us with the kind of existential dread we could barely articulate. The idea of not seeing friends, family, or even our favorite barista for weeks and months on end was overwhelming and brought us to tears every other hour. Celebrating birthdays, holidays, gender reveals, and anniversaries in isolation was the pinnacle of morbid dread. This all seemed impossible.
But that didn’t last long. Quicker than we imagined, that dread turned into a strange acceptance. As the weeks went on, the pit in our stomach evolved from self-absorbed fear into compassion for others. We finally understood and accepted that we weren’t doing this for ourselves, but for each other. As the number of confirmed cases and subsequent deaths climbed, we burrowed deeper into the alternate 4-wall universe we had created at home; one we had been so uncomfortable in weeks earlier. We invested a bit more into our surroundings, setting up home office spaces, finding the perfect area for a makeshift “gym,” and even finally pulling the trigger on that couch we’ve been eyeing for months. We embraced FaceTime, Zoom, and Google Hangouts, and leaned into our creativity in order to celebrate occasions at a safe distance. “We’re gonna be here a while,” we thought. So we stopped fighting it. We realized the world isn’t ending; it’s just paused for now. Life itself became an episode of “The Office” that we turned off mid-episode by closing our laptop, in hopes that our TV will pick it up right where we left off.
But will it?
That’s the question on everyone’s mind. What does a post-COVID world look like? When will things go back to normal or will they ever? Restrictions are lifting, but this virus is nowhere near done with us. Will we ever be able to gather at a big family dinner at our favorite steakhouse again? What about spending an entire day patio-hopping in sundresses while getting completely over-served? Will we always and forever feel the pang of guilt when we blur the lines and invite a friend or two over to our home to visit? Will we be dressed to the nines with our face masks fully intact for a date night forever? Will there be concerts? Plays? Sports? Weddings? Funerals? When will things return to normal, if they ever do?
Will I ever feel comfortable dining-in at any restaurant again?
Will I get back into the gym or is at-home fitness my new normal?
Will I ever again be in a group setting with close friends where we hug and touch and sit close to each other?
Will I ever get to hold my best friend’s daughter again and kiss on her like I did pre-COVID?
The short answer to all these question is yes, of course. The longer answer is yes, of course but we have no idea when. No one does. My guess is bit by bit, little by little. It’ll happen slowly, then all at once (sort of like falling in love). But do I think everything will feel the exact way it did pre-COVID? No. How could it? We might get close to it eventually. Some day. But I don’t think that day will come any time soon. I think we’ll tiptoe around boundaries and restrictions, wrestle with wearing gloves and face masks, and second guess (and beat ourselves up for) our social decisions for months and maybe years to come. But we know we’ll adapt, as we always do because we’re wildly capable of it. And, even though we’ll feel isolated in this adaption, we’ll be doing it together to create a NEW new normal—whatever that may look like.
xox,
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