Saying Goodbye To Normal

When I scroll through Twitter or LinkedIn, I’ve been coming across lots of articles that talk about getting back to normal. From what I can tell, there’s never been more pressure on us to be normal, or find normal, or go back to normal. It feels like there’s a constant stream of messaging being driven our way, incessantly telling us to find the versions of ourselves that existed before the pandemic.

That bothers me, because as far as I’m concerned, “normal” is gone. Like, long gone. That’s something we need to be okay with.

If you’re like me, you might feel like you’re a different person than you were two years ago. That’s because you are. We’ve been living through a global health crisis of epic proportions, one that’s put us through every stress and strain imaginable (and unimaginable). Inevitably, that changes people.

Isolation changes people. Illness changes people. Loss changes people. Time changes people. Death changes people.

And still, without fail, you can always find a new article or blog post explaining how we need to get back to the way things were.

In reality, if the things you thought were important before no longer feel that way, listen to that. Embrace the very change that you’ve gone through. Enough with the rubbish out there telling you to find your “normal”, dust it off, and try it back on to see if it still fits. It won’t. And whatever you do, don’t let people or anything you see on social media pressure you into carrying on as if nothing has happened. That’s not how life works. Change takes many forms, and we’ll continue to change as individuals beyond this pandemic.

This opportunity to slow our lives down has challenged us in many ways. It’s certainly challenged our mental health in new ways that we never expected to be challenged. It’s also given many of us a refined perspective on life. Maybe you’ve taken a look at your work/life balance and decided that you need to make some adjustments. Maybe you’ve realized that old clichés about life being short are true. Or maybe you don’t feel ready just yet to emerge into the busy and bustling world that is slowly reopening.

Maybe, just maybe, you want to live a different life than you did before. Shocking, I know.

I suppose what I’m saying is that it’s okay if you aren’t ready to go back to normal, or anything close to it. I’ve certainly felt that myself, so you aren’t alone if any of this is resonating with you. If you want something different, take it. If you don’t want your normal back, chuck it in the bin. You can’t expect to just plug the 2019 version of yourself back in and expect it to work as it did before. And that’s okay. You owe it to yourself to live true. We all do.