It's hard to believe it, but this week marks our one-year anniversary of living in a pandemic. About a year ago we went away for our spring break trip to Broken Bow, and when we came home there was no toilet paper to be found, stuff was shutting down, people were panic-buying everything, and our kids wouldn't return to school for the rest of the year (and beyond, little did we know).
It was kinda exciting in the beginning... we had plenty of toilet paper, the kids were enjoying the extended spring break, and it still felt like something special and a little silly. But then it kept on... and kept on... and kept on...
...and teachers started attempting to engage kids online without any plan or support, my company canceled their lease and went all-remote, and we started wearing masks everywhere we went.
It became pretty obvious pretty quickly that this was not a short-term situation. We were going to have to shift the way we lived, worked, played, everything. We made reusable masks, we stopped going out for fun, we stopped seeing friends, everything changed.
Now, one year later, our state has decided they've had enough change. They're going full-steam ahead backwards into pre-COVID living, and although we'd love to get back to "normal," too, even one year later I can't help but wonder if it's not time yet.
My heart hurts for everything that my family has missed out on... sports, school activities, friendships, date nights, travel... but we've stayed healthy and we can say with a clear conscience we haven't taken unreasonable risks. We'll be ready to rejoin society when the time is right- and surely that's close with vaccines becoming more available every day- but we will also continue to wear our masks, abstain from large gatherings, and finish the school year remotely.
After all, we've gotten pretty good at staying in.
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