Are you struggling to get back to pre-Covid “normal” like I am? In theory I should be fine – I’m an introverted homebody. Covid lockdown had me living some of my best days.
Yes, our borders are still closed and there’s new limits (again) on how many can attend funerals, weddings, gatho’s. Then there’s the whole ‘no dancing, no singing’ thing. But at least we can get in the car and drive anywhere, and we’re not being made to work from home. That was terrible!
Something about the world has changed. In the same way views change at the turning of a kaleidoscope, our view of the world has changed. I’m trying to convince myself it looks better but I’m not sure if I preferred the view a turn ago.
Our lanuage has changed too. The topic of a recent ABR podcast was, how our national vocabulary has changed since Covid-19. Our daily conversations now include words like pandemic, lockdown, restrictions, quarantine, social distancing, sanitise.
And we have added worries over financial stress, depression, recession, cancellations, anxiety, unemployment and changing plans. We’ve all been forced to change plans: travel plans, wedding plans, funeral plans, birthing plans, health plans, work plans, life plans. And no other generation feels the changing plans like our current Year 12 cohort. No Formals, no dancing, no music festivals, no singing, no retreats, no celebrating, no Schoolies. I feel like we’re stuck in some weird mishmash of “Footloose” and “Bird Box”.
While corona virus lingers on the horizon, like the Wicked Witch from the East, we can only hope and pray that Dorothy’s house lands on corona, so the munchkins can venture from their villages to sing and dance once again in the streets.