Through conversations with friends and family, I have come to the conclusion that the past few months have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for a lot of people. Myself included.
If we’re all being honest with ourselves, 2020 wasn’t what anyone expected. But one pandemic, a toilet paper shortage and a few banana breads later, life is starting to resemble what it once was.
While much of the world is only just starting to dip its toes back into social gatherings, here in Western Australia, pubs, restaurants and even nightclubs are back open for business. Brunches with the girls are back on, road trips down south with friends are being hastily organised and, largely, life has returned back to normal.
Now feel free to call me melodramatic, but despite coming out of quarantine and returning to the more socially-acceptable practice of drinking at a bar rather than alone in your pyjamas, life just doesn’t quite feel like it’s ‘back to normal’. Sure, a lot of us have regained the fast-paced, busy schedules we all love to loathe, but things feel distinctly different after coming out of quarantine.
Catching up with friends and family has taken on naturally renewed importance; even small interactions with strangers feel more genuine, more significant than before lockdown. From what I’ve seen, it seems as if our relationships have all undergone a serious review, and a lot of us have realised where we need to invest our time and who we need to spend it with.
For me, being forced indoors really forced me to look inwards because, for the first time in my young adult years, I had nothing to do. From juggling full-time study, work experience, two jobs and my attempt at a social life, I suddenly found myself gazing down the barrel of endless time to reflect and really sit with myself.
Aside from the concept of sharks in a swimming pool, I don’t think I have ever encountered something so scary. All distractions were pulled away, like a rug from beneath my feet, and suddenly I had landed flat on my face with nothing to do but analytically assess my life and make real decisions about where I wanted to be in the future. Yuck.
Ultimately, this led to a lot of heartbreak, some healing, a little bit more heartbreak and eventually real, personal growth. Needless to say, much wine and comfort food was consumed during quarantine.
But I guess the main take away from this weird collective experience we now all share would be that you have to put yourself first. As cliche and TikTok as this sounds, you are the main character. So change your career path, cut your own bangs, dance in the rain -or don’t because you might get a cold- I don’t know, just do things that make you happy and that feeds your soul. Because, as 12-year-old me would say, YOLO.
