PARASOL PUBS
Coming Back to My Pre-Pandemic Self Was Much Harder Than I Imagined
I gave myself a big challenge in 2023
One year ago, a friend and I got together for dinner.
“So, what’s new?” she asked as we got settled.
My heart sank. It had become my most dreaded question. What to say, when the answer was actually, nothing at all?
It was late 2022, and I was seriously dragging.
I live in the city that endured the second-longest pandemic lockdowns in the world, save Australia. I spent about seven months of 2020 and eight months of 2021 in lockdown. For us, lockdowns characterized every cold month until the tail end of Spring 2022.
Going into the winter of 2020/21, I expected it to be the most difficult time of my life. Since 2018, I’ve worked remotely for all of January. So while my friends and family were struggling with the short, gray days, I’d be at the beach or in the mountains, adventuring, exploring, and savoring the sunshine.
Now, with the lockdowns in place, I’d not only be home for the entire winter, I would barely leave my condo.
Faced with this harrowing prospect, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was less of a struggle than I expected. Staying…
