Embracing the New Normal

Nadine Rose Salas Manio

Never in my wildest dream have I imagined to be in this time of pandemic. I just woke up one day and almost everything changed. Shops, malls and offices are closed. Even churches and worship halls became no longer open to the public. Large gatherings such as concerts, convention and popular sports activities are no longer allowed. Crowd filled arenas and stadiums are now almost empty. Even the busiest airports in the world stopped operating because travelling is no longer permitted in countries affected by the pandemic situation. In a snap, it’s as if this pandemic situation shut down almost the entire world. What used to be a noisy, busy and chaotic world came to a deafening silence. A lot of people lost their jobs as most companies filed for bankruptcy. And the most devastating part of it is that a lot of people lost and risked their lives especially our frontliners.

When the community lockdown was declared, it did not sink in to me immediately. I thought it will just take a few weeks then we will be back to our normal lives. But I was wrong, because its has been months and we are now trying to live and embrace this “new normal”. Before Covid-19 happened, when we want to go out of the house, we would only take our purse or wallet with us. But now, part of the essential things that we have to bring in with us are face masks, face shield, alcohol and everything that has to do with disinfecting and protecting ourselves against contagious diseases. I used to come home from work and go straight to my children and hug them. But now, I would have to take a bath and sanitize everything I brought with me outside of the house before I can hug and kiss my children.

I had a lot of realizations brought about this pandemic situation. I realized that we have a lot of things that we do not actually need. We can manage to survive and be fully happy by only having the basic needs such as food, clothes and shelter. I also realized that everything you worked hard for such as career, family and material possessions can be taken away from you in a single snap. I read it somewhere that if you cannot change the situation, change your attitude towards the situation, and that is what I have been striving to achieve nowadays. I try my best to see a silver lining even in the worst situation. I keep on praying that this would be over soon and when the time comes we get back to our normal lives, I hope it would be a better kind of normal.

--oOo-