Is It Safe to Go Outside Yet? AKA Final Thoughts on the Pandemic

This is a very strange time, filled with lots of gray areas. We’ve been told that it’s safe to drop our masks in most circumstances as long as we’ve been vaccinated. But is it? Is it safe for us? For our loved ones? For the unvaccinated? I can tell that most people really aren’t sure what to do. As I go to stores and restaurants now, you know the kind of trip I made pre-pandemic, I pull up my mask, go inside, and survey who is uncovered. It still seems to me that most people are keeping themselves masked, but that may be one person’s perspective in one corner of the U.S.

It feels very weird just to go out for dinner. Our second child recently graduated remotely from college a few weeks ago. We had our first restaurant celebration dinner since the pandemic began. It felt very strange to sit in a restaurant and have a person SERVE ME! I guess that’s part of the experience we seek when we go out to eat, but it felt so odd. I didn’t enjoy the experience. The temperature became too warm, people spoke too loudly, the table and chairs felt grimy to touch, although they were perfectly fine by pre pandemic standards. And then there was the other reminder of the things I didn’t miss during the pandemic. Like an overly chatty waiter. Didn’t he realize we were just there to celebrate among ourselves and didn’t need to make ingratiating small talk with us?

Which reminds me to record for posterity, the other things I will miss once pandemic is completely over. As you read this, please keep in mind, I’m a very self aware introvert. Pandemics were kind of made for introverts, I believe. And PLEASE, keep this a secret, because we introverts feel bad admitting to the rest of the world that we mostly like the way things were during lockdown. They look at us with a side eye, as though we had grown an extra head.

Here is a list of things I will miss from pandemic life:

• Not leaving the house. Ever. It gave me so much time to spend the day following my muse when I didn’t have to chop it up by running around to appointments.
• The elimination of social interactions of the unnecessary nature. Like casual, not close, friends wanting to get together because they are bored and want you to help them kill the time.
• Being unable to shake hands when you meet someone. Handshakes were never a good idea. They still aren’t. Keep your hand germs to yourself.
• Having people see me talk to myself in public places. Don’t tell me you never caught yourself talking out loud in Target as you looked for something you couldn’t find. Masks completely hide your solo conversation.
• Masks also hide facial expressions. So if I made a face about something you did in public, you would never read my reaction.
• Traffic! I can’t believe this one wasn’t first on my list. I hate driving. And traffic makes it so much worse. The roads were empty during pandemic. I could breathe for the first time behind the wheel. All that’s over now. People and cars are everywhere, if not worse than before because everyone is itching to go out again. Relax people. Netflix is always releasing new shows. Go home and leave me alone on the road.

Okay, to be fair, there are a few things I won’t miss about pandemic.

• The daily fear that I or someone I love will be stricken with the virus, with horrible consequences.
• Being unable to visit and hug my extended family, including my parents.
• The inability to go to the movie theater and indulge in buckets of buttery, artery clogging popcorn.
• Watching my twenty-something year-old kids put their lives on hold just when they should be going out and figuring out their places in the world.
• Staring at my Zoom face during long Zoom calls with groups of family or friends. I don’t know about you, but I feel extremely self-conscious on Zoom.

I’m beginning to wonder how many of these pandemic/lockdown adjustments will remain in our society. When we were deeply in it, I thought the world had changed and people would stay working from home (employers seemed to like the cost savings); handshakes had gone the way of the dinosaur; people only chose to socialize with their closest friends and family; traffic would remain light. Instead, it seems to me that as uneasy as it feels to jump back into the world, the extroverts are chomping at the bit to rub elbows again, shake those germy hands, and stand by the water coolers.

Perhaps we introverts had our moment in the cave, and everyone just had to deal with the world our way. And with the good news of the lowering of virus fear, life is returning to the old normal.

Is there anything you will miss about pandemic lockdown, or are you thinking I’m crazy and should go back to my cave, because you can’t wait to join the crowds at public events, concerts, sports events, whatever?