Item
A New Normal
Title (Dublin Core)
A New Normal
Description (Dublin Core)
Thoughts on a a new normal
Date (Dublin Core)
Creator (Dublin Core)
Contributor (Dublin Core)
Type (Dublin Core)
text story
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
Curatorial Notes (Dublin Core)
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
04/22/2020
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
02/25/2021
10/14/2021
Date Created (Dublin Core)
04/20/2020
Text (Omeka Classic)
My name is Thomas Backus, and I am 28 years old. I currently live in Tempe, Arizona with my fiancé. I am a copy editor for a retirement company.
Honestly, I never thought that the pandemic would get as bad as it did or last this long. I, like many others, am guilty of saying that Coronavirus was no deadlier than the flu. However, at the time of this writing (April 20) it is day 22 of the stay at home order. The numbers keep on increasing with no sign of slowing. As of today, there are currently nearly 5000 confirmed cases in Arizona and 184 deaths. In the United States, there are nearly 800,000 cases and about 42,000 deaths.
At this point, I think we’ve passed the panic phase of the pandemic, and we are now in for the long haul. Many people, including myself, are just trying to get through it the best they can and deal with the sheer boredom. All restaurants have switched to take out or delivery only. Schools are cancelled throughout the rest of the year. Nearly all white-collar businesses are working remotely (including myself). The malls are completely shut down. It’s as if the city has gone into full “hibernation” mode.
But, it was definitely a slow progression here. When people started to panic buy toilet paper back in early March, I just thought that everyone was just buying into the media-created panic. I even remember looking in awe at the grocery carts filled to the brim with toilet paper and cases of water, and thinking that the panic buying was going to be more harmful than the virus itself.
I think my real “wake up-call” happened when my fiancé and I went out for our weekly grocery trip. We stood outside the store in a line (6 feet apart, of course), and took the recently-disinfected grocery cart. We walked down the near-empty aisles, navigating the sea of mask-wearing customers, and made our way to checkout. At checkout, each lane had markings on the floor telling people where to stand (6 feet apart) and a plexiglass barrier had been installed that separated us and the mask-wearing cashier. At that moment, I realized that this was not media-created panic, and this was not the flu. This was something new-and much, much worse than I had thought previously.
Being a history major, it’s hard to think that we are living through history. Each generation has its own “defining moment,” in which they remember exactly where they were when it happened. My grandparents could remember exactly what they were doing when they heard the news of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941. My parents remember precisely where they were when they heard the news of President Kennedy’s assassination. For the older members of my millennial generation, they can remember the second that they learned about the 9/11 attacks. However, many younger millennials, including myself (I was born in 1991), were too young to remember those events.
On the other hand, this is an event in which I will be able to remember it vividly, and one that my future children and my future grandchildren will ask me about. In fact, I can already picture them asking me in the same way that I asked my grandpa, except instead of asking “Grandpa, what did you do in the war?”, they will ask me: “Grandpa, did people really panic buy toilet paper?”
My generation is very familiar with the phrase “pre-9/11” and “post-9/11” and its larger social implications. I firmly believe that we will be referring to Coronavirus in the same way.
There will be a “new normal.”. But what will our “new normal” look like?
Honestly, I never thought that the pandemic would get as bad as it did or last this long. I, like many others, am guilty of saying that Coronavirus was no deadlier than the flu. However, at the time of this writing (April 20) it is day 22 of the stay at home order. The numbers keep on increasing with no sign of slowing. As of today, there are currently nearly 5000 confirmed cases in Arizona and 184 deaths. In the United States, there are nearly 800,000 cases and about 42,000 deaths.
At this point, I think we’ve passed the panic phase of the pandemic, and we are now in for the long haul. Many people, including myself, are just trying to get through it the best they can and deal with the sheer boredom. All restaurants have switched to take out or delivery only. Schools are cancelled throughout the rest of the year. Nearly all white-collar businesses are working remotely (including myself). The malls are completely shut down. It’s as if the city has gone into full “hibernation” mode.
But, it was definitely a slow progression here. When people started to panic buy toilet paper back in early March, I just thought that everyone was just buying into the media-created panic. I even remember looking in awe at the grocery carts filled to the brim with toilet paper and cases of water, and thinking that the panic buying was going to be more harmful than the virus itself.
I think my real “wake up-call” happened when my fiancé and I went out for our weekly grocery trip. We stood outside the store in a line (6 feet apart, of course), and took the recently-disinfected grocery cart. We walked down the near-empty aisles, navigating the sea of mask-wearing customers, and made our way to checkout. At checkout, each lane had markings on the floor telling people where to stand (6 feet apart) and a plexiglass barrier had been installed that separated us and the mask-wearing cashier. At that moment, I realized that this was not media-created panic, and this was not the flu. This was something new-and much, much worse than I had thought previously.
Being a history major, it’s hard to think that we are living through history. Each generation has its own “defining moment,” in which they remember exactly where they were when it happened. My grandparents could remember exactly what they were doing when they heard the news of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941. My parents remember precisely where they were when they heard the news of President Kennedy’s assassination. For the older members of my millennial generation, they can remember the second that they learned about the 9/11 attacks. However, many younger millennials, including myself (I was born in 1991), were too young to remember those events.
On the other hand, this is an event in which I will be able to remember it vividly, and one that my future children and my future grandchildren will ask me about. In fact, I can already picture them asking me in the same way that I asked my grandpa, except instead of asking “Grandpa, what did you do in the war?”, they will ask me: “Grandpa, did people really panic buy toilet paper?”
My generation is very familiar with the phrase “pre-9/11” and “post-9/11” and its larger social implications. I firmly believe that we will be referring to Coronavirus in the same way.
There will be a “new normal.”. But what will our “new normal” look like?
Accrual Method (Dublin Core)
1956