As more and more of the country becomes vaccinated and we move towards the hot girl summer we’d been robbed of last year, I’ve been hearing more and more people relieved we’re getting back to normal. While I, too am looking forward to hugging my family and traveling without constant, looming thoughts of sickness and death (they’re now more interspersed), I am not looking forward to the apathy that I can already see settling into the country. Going back to normal means a lot of things in different contexts, but as a whole going back to the way things were before the pandemic doesn’t sound entirely appealing to me. Going into an office every single day, riding the subway for hours a week, going to parties where you know two people and cling to them for dear life, scrunched in a sea of people at a concert unable to dance wildly like the music asks.
There are more serious things, too, that worry me when I hear “going back to normal.” I think of all the progress made this past year and a half with the nation-wide acknowledgement of police violence, woefully broken systems, and exposure of shockingly callous leaders. Protests were rampant and many f@#$s were actually given about the current state of things. I thought we’d collectively understood things were fundamentally flawed as they were, so we absolutely should have no desire to “go back to normal” but rethink ways in which we can emerge into something more beneficial for everyone in society.
I worry because a return to normalcy for some people means not having those tough conversations about race and mental health in the workplace. I’ve been seeing a few companies besides those already-known ones (lookin atchu Coinbase & Basecamp- is it the “base” in their names?!), that have taken glaringly hurtful stances that silence people undoubtedly allowing bigotry to run rampant. I worry because Congress cannot get it together to create a committee to investigate the siege on the Capitol. I worry because have you seen the GOP lately? They are teetering on the edge of a complete implosion. While I am here to watch them tear each other apart, no one in that entire party has been held accountable for their complicit behavior. A return to normal means no accountability and I think we’re all sick and tired of them getting away with saying the most egregious, offensive things without reprimand, just like before!
It’s all so worrisome because this lack of action only encourages the status quo. That cannot be our “normal” anymore. Other than those exhausting realities, there’s also the return to normal when it comes to work and wages. People in service jobs don’t get paid enough. Period. I remember my first job in the city I was making $10 an hour and thought that was a lot (I’d gotten paid $8 when I worked at the Gap in Miami). It is simply not a livable wage, and I was a single person living with a roommate. How tf can anyone who has children or a family member that needs support be expected to live on that wage anywhere let alone NYC. It has been amazing seeing workers across the country decide, this ain’t it, and closing up shop to get what they deserve. I sincerely hope more of that happens, but imagine working during the pandemic, putting your life at risk everyday, and still not getting a livable wage because what? It’s unacceptable.
I further spiral down into the depths when people defend the millionaires and billionaires that have made oodles of money since the pandemic started, claiming they made all that money because they’re smart and shouldn’t be asked to pay more taxes because it’s stealing. I just-
For people who have that mentality, what is the reason to hoard money other than complete and utter selfishness?? If I had 700 million dollars and was told I need to pay a slightly higher tax because I had 700 million dollars, I dunno. I feel like I would be okay with it because I had 700 million dollars…
Behold this poor human using rice to give us some perspective on ol’ Bezos’s wealth- spoiler alert it’s staggering:
Finally, going back to the office. Sweet heavens, I heard people have to jump back into it cold turkey. Five days a week out the gate, in an office, like, just doing it. I just got a new job about a month ago and went to the office for the first time and it was a lot. All of that fun social anxiety of being in an office space and all of that weird new person energy was so exorbitant I was sure I would catapult into the ceiling. Luckily, I held it together and was able to pretend to be human, but I don’t think I’m ready to go back to an office full-time yet. I got really lucky with this new job, because they are completely letting individuals decide what makes them the most comfortable and not insisting on everyone coming back to the office all at once.
I’m not ready to go back to normal. I’m not ready for crowds. I’m certainly not ready for crowds without masks. I don’t want to call it back to normal. I don’t like the implications and just thinking those words is making me want to faint. I think instead I’m going to call this weird transitional period just that. It’s a weird transitional period and we’re all making it up as we go along and it might not be back to normal completely but it will be a semblance of familiarity, but normalcy is out the window. Who wants that anyhow? Give me nebulous ambiguity any day, but please don’t make me “go back to normal.”