Friday, March 13th

 

I know today is NOT a Friday.  It is; however, March 13th and I'm thinking (though I am not certain) that this may be the first March 13th that I've been in an office since 2019.  

March 13th, for me, is the day that Covid became a reality.  I left my office (which was then in the marshlands of NJ) that day knowing that I would be working from home the next day, but I fully expected to be back in the office on Monday.  I had heard nothing different.  The reason that I wasn't coming in that Friday was because the schools were closing for two weeks (?) and my son had to get everything out of his locker.  It was a half day and wanted to be able to pick him up if he needed it.  (Note, he did not.)  

I remember the day started out rainy.  My husband and I dropped our son off at school and then hurried to do our weekly shopping at ShopRite.  We were later than usual (and "back then" the store didn't open  until 7 AM, now we are there before they open at 6) and the parking lot was a mess.  Worse than it would be on a weekend before a holiday.  The place was packed and no one (that I can recall) was wearing a mask.  

To say it was chaos is putting it mildly.  It was insane.  It's amazing that we didn't end up with Covid after that because people were everywhere.  I do have to note that according to my blog about that day, people were generally kind and courteous.  (Why can't we be like that every day?  Why AREN'T we like that every day?)  It was the beginning of something we were not prepared for (we being the general populace) and no one really knew what was to come next.

I know the days, weeks, and months that followed were nothing like I had ever experienced before.  The world was changed.  My world was changed.  I worked from home.  My son went to school from home.  We struggled.  We managed.

Now, here we are  four years later.  Sometimes it seems like a dream.  (Thank goodness I blog, so I can look back and really remember what life was like.)  Or perhaps I should say a nightmare.  And while we have made great strides over the past several years (thank you members of the scientific and medical communities; THANK YOU), we will never be able to go back to the status quo of "before Covid."  The calendar may say the new millennium began on January 1, 2000, but didn't we really step into a new world in 2020?  While we anticipated wild and crazy things happening as we stepped into a new century,  we were thrown off guard (or most of us were), by 2020.

It's four years later.  I'm back working in an office.  While I used to like it; I'm not crazy about it now.  I'm grateful that I don't have to come in every day.  I'm grateful (but also annoyed) that I take public transportation three days a week.  I wear a mask on the bus.  (To be honest, I didn't always, but then there was that flair up and it just seems wiser to wear a mask when there are a lot of people around.  Not that I've completely learned my lesson.  When I went to a convention back in February  I didn't wear a mask.  Very few people did.  Many people that I knew ended up with Covid.  I didn't, but I could have.  Did I learn my lesson?)  Not everyone does, but I'm not alone.

There was a time when I thought someone wearing a mask was "strange."  How stupidly judgmental was I?  Now when I see someone wearing a mask, I am grateful and gracious.  Or at least I try to be.

Covid taught us to be thoughtful.  Covid taught us to be kind.  Covid taught us to be grateful.  Powerful lessons, and yet four years later we seem to have forgotten.  DON'T.

It's March 13th.  For me and for many of us, that's when the world really started to change.  It was a time when we learned lessons; let's not forget them.  Think back to the horror of the reality of 4 years ago.  Remember.  See how far we have managed to come.  Remember the lessons we learned.  They were important.  We need to remember.  We need to use the lessons we learned four  years ago today and in the future.

March 13th wasn't just another day, but may this March 13th be just that:  another day.