What I Won’t Miss
A year. One whole year. Last week marked a year since the start of this pandemic.
As I reflected on this year of Covid life, several events helped center what this has all been like.
I tested negative for Covid-19, and to my non-symptomatic knowledge, haven’t gotten it, either.
Just when I thought I’d been to every virtual event imaginable, I attended my first YouTube wedding and teared up just as much as if I were seeing my beautiful friend walk down the aisle in person.
I ended the week like I started the pandemic. First photo, us celebrating my friend’s birthday at her home in March 2020, the last indoor gathering I attended before Julian and I went into the strictest leg of this whole saga: 70 days without leaving our home. Under that pic, the outdoor celebration we had with her this past Friday.
What a freaking time.
How’re you holding up? I’m still tired. The residue of 2020 is still steeping in my bones. It’s still going to take a bit more time to arrive back at being my full self. Notice I didn’t say back to normal. That, I don’t want. I’m all for letting this time transform us anew, me included.
As inspired by the inimitable Nora Ephron, I’m marking this pandemic year by the things I want to leave behind.
Here’s What I Won’t Miss about “normal life” before Covid-19:
-Filling my off-work time going to events “por compromiso”
-The random indoors.
-Spending too much time indoors.
-Investing in acquaintanceships without reciprocal potential of becoming friendships.
-Paying for overpriced drinks.
-Ignoring ways I’m complicit in systemic oppression of any kind.
-Frequent use of jeans.
-Intermittent cooking.
-Not letting myself feel all the way when the state of the world feels too burdensome to bare.
-Excessive multitasking.
-Publix.
-Not prioritizing spending time with people I love.
-Doing pretty much anything for a sustained period with people I don’t love.
-Crowded elevators.
-Wearing flats.
-Putting off that act of kindness or care.
-Using my car when I can walk.
-Responsibilities that demand recurring commitments of my time.
-Forgetting to bring my water bottle.
-Buffets.
-Talking about the weather.
When this is all said and done, if you by chance witness me doing any of these things, you, dearest dude still reading, have full authority to call me out on it.
This whole Covid situation had to mean something more than lives lost and lessons learned (but not practiced), right?
What Won’t You Miss about life pre-Covid?
Thankfully, there’s little time left to find out.