About a month ago, I celebrated my third birthday, since the beginning of the COVID pandemic.

If anyone had told me three years ago, that my 2019 birthday was the last ‘normal’ birthday in a while, I’d have looked at them weird.

 

By the time I was marking my birthday in isolation in April of 2020, it had dawned on me that that was the first of a couple of birthdays, to be ‘celebrated’ in a world markedly different from what I had known all my life, prior to 2020.

 

My memory of that birthday is easily the anxiety of the unknown and the uncertainty of coming days, as borders shut down, as my neighbourhood turned into a ghost town and we grappled with unprecedented store squabbles for tissue rolls, hand-sanitizers and baby wipes.

 

Which is why as I marked yet another birthday last month, and I reflected on the past two years, I had nothing but gratitude. That there IS light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Little things I had taken for granted, like being able to just waltz into a restaurant and order birthday lunch and drinks are now things I am grateful to be able to do.

 

And for the first time since I started at my (not so new) job in 2021, I (finally!) got to meet my colleagues, and my amazing boss/mentor in person.

 

The excitement of returning to the ‘old’ normal however slowly gave way to anxiety of not knowing how to function in that old normal again.

 

For starters, none of my work clothes fit anymore! I mean… yoga pants and peejays have been my best friends for the best part of the past two years, little wonder I did not realise I had a crisis in the wardrobe department.

 

I’d have to throw the whole darn thing away, and get new outfits.

 

There is just the little issue of opportunity costs:

 

Hello Inflation! (Thank you Putin)

 

*rolls eyes

 

In the face of scarily rising gas prices, outrageous food costs, and mounting interest rates - basically the perfect storm -  I’ve found myself feeling like I am right back in 2007; being fresh out of Nigerian Law school, and having to navigate through the confusion of adulthood, while scrounging my way up from the bottom of the food-chain.

 

Everything suddenly seemed overwhelming, and that old normal I was excited to be returning to suddenly seemed even more elusive than before.

 

I’ve found myself stopping myself in my tracks, and repeating to myself “breathe. Just breathe”.

 

The more I tried to chase after that old normal, the more elusive its seemed as never before, and the more frustrated I got.

 

Until I sat myself down, and said: what if there is no returning to the ‘old normal’? What if this normal IS the normal??

 

And it did wonders for me.

 

Giving me some respite, teaching me to take each day as it comes, roll will the punches, deal with each new surprise with a shrug of shoulders, and embrace the normal I see today.

 

So here’s to the new normal of today, the new normal of tomorrow, and the new normal that may come after. We’re here for all of it, and taking it all in.

 

Come what may.

 

Paz,

 

Meg.

Photo credit: Juliane Liebermann via www.unsplash.com