I’d be lying if I said that I hated everything that occurred during the heaviest of the COVID outbreak. As an introvert I’ll admit the reduction in people being out and about was actually somewhat comforting to me. I was still active and on the road due to work, which I’m grateful for, but people were far and few between. Roads were less congested, people were a little more mindful of personal space.
As things are easing up obviously we’re going back to how things were which is both good and bad. It hasn’t always been a great adjustment for me though. While I’ll take flack for it, I miss “COVID-traffic” which is to say I missed not having traffic. People were a little nicer on the road, speeding seemed like it was down and I hadn’t gotten tailgated in ages. Crowds and lines are returning which isn’t as much fun for me. As the mask mandates are lifted I’ll have another interesting adjustment to make. There was something a little nice about not having to put on a fake smile while around crowds that I’ll miss. I won’t miss the muffling of my voice or the stuffiness (or having to smell my own breath so much). But what will I do now that I can’t do a great Bane impression at will?
With mental health awareness being pushed more mainstream, I hope that as we adjust to this new normal we find ways to maintain some of the better practices that came from our COVID outbreak days. I hope that people continue to respect space and try to be a bit more understanding. News and other observations however aren’t great. I feel like traffic ramped back up something fierce and people see the continued COVID mandates as an annoyance and are more prone to snapping at one another. In the mean time I’ll make what changes I can and try to gauge where my comfort level is when I do go out and about.
