The New Normal

One of the things that is getting me through the global pandemic is my constant awe of the ways people are adapting to it all. While it may have been the case a few weeks ago that everyone was re-watching High School Musical and touting "we're all in this together", even the most health conscious of us have had our own personal moments straight out of Lord of the Flies as we head into Memorial Day weekend.

Having been a social-distancer myself, I also made the decision rather early on to spend the main part of the pandemic quarantining with my family. I'm not usually one to suffer from anxiety, and have honestly never really had issues with being alone, but I realized pretty quickly that this situation is entirely different. There's a difference between being okay (and happy!) living alone and living alone and not talking to anyone (in person) but a grocery store checkout clerk or a takeout delivery person for weeks at a time (team meetings over video-chat during work hours does not take the place of face-to-face interaction for long periods of time, at least not for me). In the end, this has even shifted my stance on remote working - it's never been something I clamored for pre-COVID, but there are certain joys to working out of my apartment, or in the case currently, being able to literally pack up my office and take it with me with no worries regarding productivity. The only let-down so far? Not having an actual office to help with the blurry line of work/life separation remote working sometimes brings - something that I hope going into 2021 will change for the better ;)