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Here’s Why I Don’t Want Things to Go Back to Normal
The pandemic was already teaching me lessons. Then my diagnosis brought it home.
“Okay you’re all done,” the nurse handed over my vaccine card and sent me to the observation room. I stood from the pink plastic chair, nearly dizzy from a flood of relief and dread. I have my first vaccine. The light at the end of the tunnel is now. I am happy to have my vaccine, and oh so grateful. I’m also confused about what that means going forward, for me and the rest of our country.
Back to normal. Back to normal. Back to normal. I hear that phrase everywhere now in relation to vaccination rates. Everyone wants to get back to normal. Every time I hear the phrase, I wonder what it means to the person speaking it. Are there actually people who wish to go back to life exactly as it was before we’d ever heard of COVID-19?
From March to December of 2020, I was content to wait for the storm to pass. My husband and I decided together at the start that we’d hunker down for the duration, until there was a vaccine. At first, it wasn’t much of a challenge for us. We both already worked at home, we’re introverts, and we don’t have kids. Our grocery shopping schedule was different, and we couldn’t see our family. Otherwise we were okay for a while.
