On any given weekend day, pre-pandemic, you can typically find me waking up early and getting started with errands on my street. I’ll pick up breakfast, a latte, and then finish up at the gift shop or the local market before heading home. And even though I did that same routine today, it doesn’t feel the way it normally does. I find myself dodging other people on the street if I feel like I might be too close to them on the sidewalk. Even though you can’t see it because I’m wearing my mask, I might be side eyeing or glaring at other individuals that have chosen not to wear a mask. These days if I’m leaving my house, I return quickly. There is no taking my time or doing anything leisurely because even stepping outside of my home is stressful.
As states begin to re-open, I still don’t feel at ease. In addition to re-opened states seeing a spike in cases, my friends and I are now at varying levels of comfort when it comes to how we approach the rest of quarantine. Not one to experience that much FOMO in the past, it’s something I’m thinking about a lot these days as friends of mine are the first to eat out at restaurants or book their first vacations. It’s the kind of thought that gets into your head and asking yourself, “Am I the crazy one?” “Am I being overly cautious here?”
I’d be lying to you all if I said I didn’t falter from time to time. Then I remember how far we’ve come and that if I were to get sick now, all the work we’ve put in would have been for nothing. So we’re not letting that happen.
