What is normal?

Covid has had a huge impact on how we now think, work, and interact with each other.

Before Covid we were commuting, clogging the roads, trains, and buses. Enduring the lengthy travel time and having to stand on public transport when you’ve paid a small fortune. Being faced with an armpit on the tube or watching 2 road users exchange hand gestures as one got an inch further. Before Covid, we were just popping in to see Nan, having to make time for the gym or to do the dreaded weekly food shop. We were physically attending appointments – yes face to face with a human! Being available to attend Johnny’s school play and dare I mention the word ‘Holiday’ and taking a break with the family. And yet this normal was ‘how it always was’

Normal has a new meaning

The past few years has given ‘Normal’ a new meaning, a new way of working, a new way of interaction. For all the growth and change and adaptation that has happened in the past years, it is hard to even define what a post-pandemic normalcy might mean. The dictionary defines it simply as conforming to a standard — usual, typical, or expected. Can we go back? Do we want to go back to that normal?

What’s your normal?

So, here we are ‘Getting back to Normal’ what is your normal? For me impossible things have become possible: maintaining relationships online and now Nan has a tablet and is learning all this digital stuff! Uncle Jimmy chats to his brother in Australia using his device and our children are doing homework online. We now attend GP appointments over the phone and not waiting in a surgery sitting next to someone coughing and spluttering, having to take time off work or asking Aunty Mary to please come ‘Sit with the Kids’ whilst you attend.

We’re enrolling on college courses and learning online and don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to meet and chat with fellow students, but we now have more time for us and the whole work life balance thing. Technology has embraced the new ‘Normal’ and things are more accessible to everyone these days and that’s a good thing, right?!

Slowing down

Life has slowed down just a bit and if we sit back and think about it, has everything been bad? For many of us, the pandemic has given us the opportunity to slow down a bit and focus on the essentials. Whether it be spending more quality time with our children, taking time to phone a long-lost friend or relative, or having a video chat with friends and family, chances are we have had the opportunity to reconnect with people you haven’t talked to in a long time. We’ve thought about more than just ourselves.

Through the pandemic, it was easy to go into despair. But many of us have found a way to do good for others, whether it be by delivering groceries and prescriptions to our elderly neighbours that were too high-risk to go to the grocery store to donated to a GoFundMe site for a family in need. Stories of people doing good for others have been on a historic rise over the last year, and that’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it?

So, what is your ‘Normal?’ I’m liking this new ‘Normal’ and I’m gonna stick with it!!