With pharmacy queues, class suspensions, and toilet paper shortages, here are the things I realize I’ve always taken for granted until the outbreak. After spending time apart social distancing, and witnessing the devastation caused by the Covid-19 crisis, I also just miss simple social interactions. For days now, the list has been growing in my head. All the community meet-ups, all the resting coffees, everyone I bumped into in the street over, the dinners with old friends, bunking classes, the walks talks with neighbors and cups of tea from Chai stop, everything.
THE HUMAN TOUCH
Aside from being able to just see family and friends in person, I really miss the warm embrace that comes with a greeting or goodbye. I miss the crowd. I miss being around a lot of people. I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY MISS THE HUMAN TOUCH.
GOING OUT TO EAT
It’s so unnatural for me to go these days without junk food. So missing the experience and excitement around Sunday brunch, a weeknight dinner at an undiscovered restaurant or even strolling into my favorite neighborhood spot for a quick bite.
The idea of sitting down for a meal, prepared by chefs in a professional kitchen sounds like a dream now!
MEET-UPS
It doesn’t matter what type of online community you are running, to me community meetups can help connect the members. People sometimes feel disconnected or removed from other community members because they have not met offline before. Having your community connect in real-time can help put strengthen relationships and trust, and result in a more respectful debate. Plus, meetups are fun and I’m so missing it!
While people have gotten creative with virtual happy hours and hangouts, there’s nothing like a real meetup feels!
GOING OUT, IN GENERAL
In what has felt like an eternal Sunday for me, I’m eagerly waiting for the pandemic to over as soon as possible to get back to the routine. But it seems like, even if the coronavirus crisis will pass, life may never be ‘normal’ again. And if all this sounds like a lonely, antiseptic way of living, then perhaps it will also make us appreciate the human contacts that matter and things we’ve always taken for granted until this pandemic.
What I miss most in a crisis, I suspect, is each other. But things eventually return to normal, even if it isn’t quite the normal we knew.
But as for now, stay home y’all!