Something that no one was expecting was the way COVID came into our lives, taking a toll on most of us and the way we were used to living. The massive impact it had and still is worldwide has made sure to change the way we experience things and react to certain situations.
Even more, for those that are entering adulthood and transitioning from our late teens into quarantine has surely limited us to what was conventionally the standard of our 20’s.
The Covid era’s impact on our future has made it different from past generations as we’ve found ourselves trapped indoors and away from our close ones, making us look for ways to socialize and adapt to this new way of living.
The odd 20s
As some are entering the transition from leaving high school and finally entering the field of adulthood only having in mind the things that media has incrusted in our brains as well as what we’ve been told by our close ones. How partying, moving out of our parents’ home, eternal socializing, entering the work world. It is as if time stopped, and we are still learning the new ways of the world. From working at home to struggling with finding a job and even finding it within yourself to leave the house. It has been a real struggle adapting to this new way and allowing for it to be healthy and not indulge in unhealthy practices that keeps us glued to the bed, which always seem like a good idea until you realize how much time you’ve been wasting, missing on possibilities and events which are just around the corner or well, would have been if the pandemic never happened, otherwise we have to force ourselves into the mindset of the new world, the new way of thinking that we were forced to learn just to survive away from the risk of contagion.
The pandemic has truly changed the way we see the world and interact with it, an odd turn of events which we don’t know how long will last as well as the fear of infection and spreading the virus is something that has been incrusted in our brains whilst also being melancholic of what we won’t be able to experience, thinking that perhaps this time has been wasted and we won’t be able to take it back. Yet, this time on our own has allowed us to think inward, truly letting us look at ourselves and figure out certain things. Even spending time with those who we haven’t seen in a while due to our busy schedule, trapped at home has never been so comfortable and nice, maybe even dare call it a throwback to our younger days, weekends when the whole family was at home with nothing going on.
New environment
The online era has saved us during these trying times from being jobless, drowning in boredom and absolute isolation, finding different sources of entertainment. From trying out new music, new movie genres and even working out, the inner work we’ve made is something that we wouldn’t have been able to achieve without being forcefully confined to the four walls of our home.
Coexisting with the virus has been truly a test of time, growing in this period has been like nothing we’ve experienced prior but that shows us how resilient we can be when something as big as this pandemic strikes.
How we’ve seen the different measures companies have taken to allow us live with some previous normality like, going to the movie, something that one year ago we wouldn’t have even thought of doing, we are finally slowly being able to do such small thing but completely significant to our life as to slowly return to what we once knew but we’ll have to understand this new way as it has become the new normal, a normal which is more to keep ourselves healthy, not in a way we’ve done prior, but in a stance where we don’t only have to worry about ourselves but our environment, people around us and how we interact with them, wearing a mask out of respect for others and our health.
How a social interaction has lost its meaning, changing our perspective of it all, feeling foreign, strange. Even when we look at an old movie and the characters are all partying together, face masks and worry-free. The eerie feeling of the old normality and our need to protect ourselves have created the new standard, the new way of socializing and developing relationships far away from one another and mostly online, not a cultural shock but a generational one, separating us from those who experienced their 20’s before the pandemic yet both of us having different experiences and situations from which we’ve grown and will learn from.
