Three weeks ago I traveled to Florida to see my daughter graduate from college. This entailed navigating an airport, flying on a plane in close proximity to other passengers, staying in a friend’s home, staying in a hotel, going to restaurants to eat (outside), and walking around the downtown area of St. Pete.
In normal times, these are all normal things to do and we wouldn’t give them a second thought. After a year + of a global pandemic, where we were mainly staying inside and away from other people, where the paint job that I had scheduled for mid-March 2020 began and no one got to see my beautiful navy blue accent wall because no one entered my house except me and my children, these are all strange new things to do. Strange and a little unnerving, because we’ve also lost our sense of security about the normal, and small, daily actions and interactions have brought us enormous fear this year.
And yet, once I hit the tarmac in Florida, and entered a state whose motto should be “What Pandemic?”, instead of feeling nervous and sketchy, I opened up and felt free. Of course, entering a restaurant to use the restroom (using a public restroom!) and going into a shop required a mask. But that felt low key and easy. Walking outside, where no one wore a mask there was just a lot of fresh air and sea breeze and people watching to do, I felt like a re-set button had been pushed.
I assumed that when I came back I would resume my skittish Covid ways. But I haven’t. I really feel safer and more ready to resume what once were the normal, daily interactions of life. And for that I am so grateful.
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