New Normals That Should Continue Post-Pandemic

Not every adjustment has sucked; some, I’ve fallen in love with.

Photo by Kate Trifo on Unsplash

We’ve had to change or scrap a long list of behavioral norms and patterns during our interminable Covid confinement. Internal and external relationships have been tested; intimacy has been tested; parenting has been tested; and working routines have been tested.

But now that it’s beginning to feel safe to plan again, I predict there’ll be many adjustments that we’ll divorce ourselves from faster than a cheetah after its prey. A few that I won’t miss are:

• Feeling like I have cataracts because my glasses are in a perpetual mask fog.
• Watching my fruit rot while I struggle to open vacuum-sealed plastic bags because I have a mask on and can’t lick my finger.
• Feeling like I’m a mom to a newborn again because I have hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, Ziplocs, masks, tissues, and alcohol wipes stuffed in every pocket and bag I own.
• Losing my shit when I grocery shop for five hours and my family devours it all in 12.
• Not touching my face/ rubbing my eyes / itching my nose.
• Being publicly ostracized because I sneezed or coughed, especially when I was protectively hugging my stash of…