Normality

I am incredibly fortunate to live in a place where the majority of the governmental restrictions put into place to limit the spread of COVID-19 have now been eased. The only significant practical difference between now and February is that our borders are still shut, but we can now go to gyms, pubs and protests freely. There’s been a lot of talk about the virus being an opportunity to change, for us not to return to the normality we inhabited previously and instead to forge a better status quo. With that in mind, in a way I am a little scared to enter this new phase our island is in - I worry that we will indeed just go back to the old normal, and the optimism I have that things might be different will fade. Of course, for many people who have been affected either by the coronavirus or by the lockdown restrictions, revisiting the way things were isn’t an option at all, and again, I am grateful that is an option for me at all.

I think either way, the virus will be in people’s minds for a long time to come, even if few tangible differences emerge off the back of it. It has certainly given me a newfound sense of appreciation for this normality, for all the freedoms I am afforded that were briefly taken away from me. Hopefully it’s something that stays with me long after the threat of COVID has gone.