#WhenThisIsOver I Will Board a Plane Again
By Jennifer Nelson J ‘88
There will come a time when I won’t have to remain at home all day, sequestered with my two twenty-something sons, blocking off contact from outsiders. Then what? What do I wish for then?
I want to resume the active lifestyle I had before the pandemic. I will no longer take for granted connections that come from teaching at a high school in New Jersey, participating in a playwriting group in neighboring Pennsylvania, and traveling to see my siblings and mother in San Francisco. Even though I still interact with family and friends through Zoom, Google Meet and Facebook, it’s not the same as meeting them in person.
At school during fifth period, I’ll resume light-hearted conversations with two Spanish teachers — and they’ll undoubtedly show me how to integrate technology into my lessons and talk about their weekends and families. I long to see my playwriting group to workshop our 10-minute plays, now scheduled for production on June 6, but which will surely be delayed until the fall. They provide a much-needed outlet for my creativity.
Once I can again board a plane, my boyfriend and I will fly to Denver, where we’ll visit his friends and then drive to California to see my family. We’ll hike national parks, tour Salt Lake City and Denver, and frequent restaurants. Won’t it be great to plan a shopping trip to Macy’s with my daughter to buy a cute summer outfit, then eat lunch at a food court? Weekends will again be filled with seeing a play or a movie with friends in New York or Princeton — and critiquing the production over a drink.
As importantly, I want to return to a time when I wasn’t wary of meeting strangers, and see them as welcoming, instead of potentially carrying the coronavirus. They’ll perceive me as friendly, not someone who could be asymptomatic for COVID-19. Won’t it be great to be in a world in which people randomly connect, making days more special, less lonely and more meaningful? That day will come soon — perhaps with the heat of summer — and, when this is over, normal life will never seem boring again.
