Life After Covid (aka My face feels Nekkid)

The Long Road Back…

Well, I don’t know about you, but the last few weeks, I feel lighter. Not because of any diet (although I am doing that as well— fun fact! The average American gained 15 pounds over the course of our country’s quarantine. I checked the scale and think that particular survey was skewed by wishful thinking😒)

Anyhoo, we have a vaccine! We are shedding the chains of social distancing, tossing aside our masks (only in the presence of other people who are vaccinated, of course) and finally feel free to ‘move about the country,’ as they say! I, for one, am rejoicing, and I will tell you why…

If quarantine taught me one thing— it actually taught me several things but I digress— it’s that human beings are social creatures by nature. We are meant to exist in the company of others, whether at work or the grocery store or in the park.

A smile, a gentle touch, the sound of another person’s laughter echoing in the next room, are all things that remind us of our humanity. Taken away, we adapt by becoming what Covid dictated. Solitary beings, shut-ins.

Hermits. And not the good kind😉

Over the last year and a half or so, we slipped into the role of self-isolation, perhaps too easily. Material things were just a click away, thanks to Amazon and other online shops. We were able to order groceries via a personal shopper, and completed our doctor visits virtually.

The country was on ‘pause’. Schools taught virtually, vacations were scrapped, many companies allowed their employees to work from home in their pj’s and fuzzy slippers. And it all worked for awhile.

Until that pesky bug in our ear, that devil on our shoulder, began to tell our brains that something was missing in our lives. That living like that, without prom and graduations and ballgames, kinda sucked. That being unable to visit our elderly parents, sit with a friend in a hospital room, or bury our loved ones, was barbaric and unsustainable.

We went an entire summer without walking the boardwalk at the shore, dining out with friends, or celebrating our country’s independence with a good ol’ fashioned barbeque.

Immediate family, Facetime, and Netflix became our best friends. We watched news updates, worried as the number of infections rose and the dead grew, tried to follow the bouncing ball of altered guidelines and new restrictions.

Over the months, as the walls closed in, many people became resentful, questioning our government, our doctors, God. The death toll was, and continues to be, horrendous. I challenge you to tell me you knew no one with the virus, knew of no one that died from it.

Sadly, I know I do.

And, if you truly do not know of a single individual who contracted Covid, let me introduce myself…

Yep, been there, done that. September 3rd, 2020 to be exact. And it sucked. I have underlying conditions and I was convinced I was a goner. Obviously, thankfully, I was wrong. And yes, despite having already had it, I am fully vaccinated.

Oh, I hear the groans out there from the handful of naysayers that resist the science. “It was developed much too quickly!” “I won’t be a guinea pig for the CDC!” “No way! They are putting microchips in there to alter our DNA!”

Yeah, that last one is a doozy. I have no answer for that statement, except to say there must be thousands and thousands of people who are ‘in on it’, judging by the number of countries and universities that participated in the research and joined forces with us to create a vaccine.

As for the other sentiments, I can tell you only what I have read. Several sources explain that the vaccine was developed quickly because, quite simply, they weren’t starting from scratch. This virus has similar traits to others, like SARS and Influenza, so they didn’t need to start from square one. There was no need to reinvent the wheel. They studied how it behaved, added a dash of this and a pinch of that, to come up with the best possible recipe to use against it.

That being said, we live in America, land of the free. If we believe that Americans have the right to choose what is best for themselves medically, then we need to respect which side of this debate they fall on. I believe that there is a valid argument for both sides. It’s just that, for me, the more I learn of the vaccine, the more the blocks tilt one way.

Like a wicked game of Jenga.

Going forward, I will continue to wear a mask in heavily concentrated places (think malls or football games) simply because I remain in the high-risk group, despite being vaccinated. That being said, if I do contract it again, being vaccinated should afford me an easier course and quicker recovery. (My lips to God’s ears🙏)

For the rest of you, I wish you good health, a new-found appreciation for your nekkid, mask-less faces, and the peace that comes from knowing we are on the road back to cookouts, shore traffic, and slimmer waistlines.

Maybe not that last one.

Later, gators xxoo

—Q