Change Edition – Quarantine Changed The Way We Interact With Each Other

If you’ve been alive for longer than 5 years, you probably remember quarantine, COVID-19, and how we couldn’t leave our houses for anything for almost a year and a half. I don’t necessarily want to talk about the quarantine bit, I want to touch on how quarantine changed the way we interact with people in any public setting, and how it’s both positive and negative in numerous aspects of life and surviving in shared spaces. 

It was a hard year, and I believe that because of that hard year, a lot of people were forced to adapt to the changing times. One day, we were breathing air normally, and then came the mask mandates and long list of symptoms for a virus that at the time was so new most of us had never heard of it. Then there was the point in time where all of your friends and family became hillbillies and lost their minds, and then you couldn’t talk to them anymore because one of the people you loved most in the world was dying from cancer and a common cold could kill him. So now that we’re all caught up, let’s dive right into the way we’ve all changed after quarantine.

Before COVID, everyone was kind of just really withdrawn and quiet. Then everything shut down and we were stuck only interacting with our families for 18 months. “After” (I put quotations because let’s be real, COVID isn’t fully done yet and we still need to be really careful) COVID, everyone was allowed to come back to school. We all know that we use school as a social hour, and not actually to get an education. We talk to each other now. A phone screen feels less effective and the faces we missed so much are right in front of us. We could touch them, but we won’t because of guidelines. The way we care for and about each other has changed and grown. We’d rather hang on to our loved ones physically rather than just text them for everything. Unless you’re one of those people that cannot wait to get away from their families, then carry on. 

I do want to add that it’s truly impressive how kind we’ve been to each other. Ignoring the fistfights and the yelling and all that, I feel like I’ve been included way more than I would have been pre-quarantine. I hope it sticks. I hope that we all put down our tiny little pitchforks and are able to connect in a way that matters. I hope all of you reading feel something powerful and write a book. Or make a piece of art that moves someone else. Dance and sing to good music. I hope that the way of life now is better for you. Despite how weird it is, I do want everyone to know that I love them and I am thinking of them. I think knowing someone is thinking of you makes it easier to get out of bed, so yes, I am thinking of you and I truly do hope good things come to you as you continue to survive and thrive on this weird acorn sized planet we call home.