As the covid-19 restriction policy has been loosened a bit, it feels like we could soon be back to "normal" life. But are we ready to welcome back our "old normal"?
There has been a bunch of discussions about anxiety around going back to normal:
。Some people expressed their anxiety towards re-attending social events after months of life without social interaction.
。Some people worried that their work-life balance would be interrupted and that their quality of life would be crushed as they go back to a 9 to 5 office life.
For me personally, I feel like we have taken a big rest and should be prepared for another phase of life, which is as usual fast-paced, productivity-oriented and success-driven. And this time it will definitely become tougher.
Let's read this month's article: We shouldn’t go back to “normal.” Normal wasn’t good enough.
But there’s a second category of worry here. And this one, arguably, might be worth cultivating: the worry about returning to a global normal we’d rather not come back to. The pandemic broke open public discourse around issues that were either typically sidestepped — mental health struggles, for instance — or accepted with little resistance, like the rigidity of the modern workday. Will returning to normal life mean sweeping these hard conversations back under the rug?
As University of San Diego student Lily Yates told me, “I think people’s increased willingness to intentionally care more for their mental health during the pandemic reveals the problem of just how taboo it is during ‘normal’ times. We shouldn’t need to cite a global pandemic to take extra time for ourselves and set necessary boundaries at work and school. The idea that everyone is ‘okay’ at all times — and that we should pretend we are if we’re not — has been shattered, and it should stay that way.”
