The beginning of 2020 was another year that would be filled with joy, tears, laughter and another chapter in what we call ‘life’. As I sit here on the 12th June I cannot believe I am writing about something that I know without a doubt is ‘history in the making’.
COVT-19 – an unknown term that started with a small outbreak connected to bats, which has now lead to a virus which has changed the world as we know it.
One of the key terms that has emerged from this virus to help it from spreading is ‘social distancing’. This term refers to the 1.5 metre rule when we as individuals cannot stand side by side, cannot shake hands or give a kiss to the ones we love in public. To go in depth about the virus itself can be sourced on various media outlets, my post is personal.
How can you describe something that has changed the way we live? How can you describe desolate streets that were once alive with food and people now empty? How can you explain to children that they would be learning from home and not seeing their friends in the playground? How can you go from working in an office, interacting with colleagues to working from home? – WELCOME TO THE NEW NORMAL…..
My personal reflection is that what I took for granted last year or the beginning of this year is heart breaking. I am so over being told what we can and can’t do that it almost is too much for me to comprehend. As I leave the house each day I now have to make sure I am wearing a mask, to reduce the risk of infection. I try and do the best I can to follow guidelines BUT let me explain to you what the mask means to me:
The mask is a representation of how I feel trapped inside. The mask that I wear is hiding the grief and frustration of loosing my basic right to freedom, my basic right to do what I want to do when I want to do it. This mask is so suffocating because it represents what the world is like now. I would like to think that as individuals we are coming to terms with our ‘new normal’ but the fact is there is nothing normal about it but what can I do?
This is what I can do: reflect, ponder, think, ask. how, why but ultimately WHAT can I do to change this? The fact is I cant change the situation that we are ALL in, I can though change how I respond to the ‘new normal’. My response, follow guidelines, take one day at a time and hope to hell that we all are responding by the phrase that
“We are all in this together”
I believe that being in this all together means that we ALL now have to accept that until a vaccine is made available that our old life is now ‘OUR NEW LIFE’.
Written by L.R 12072020. (All photos sourced through online media gallery and personal files, all writing is personal reflections from the author, Lina-R-G.
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