Day 30

Monday, September 30, 2024

Harold Washington Library

It’s funny that I used to spend so much of my time in the Loop and now I’m hardly ever there other than to go shopping at Macy’s. But I do remember how to make my way around and where most everything is, although a lot changed after the pandemic.

Also, does it bother anyone else how we casually refer to the pandemic? I don’t know what else we’re supposed to do, but doesn’t it feel just a little creepy, a little dystopian? Imagine 2019 you overheard a conversation between 2024 you and some friend and you were both casually referring to a pandemic. How freaked out would you be? Especially if 2024 you was so casual about it, like it wasn’t even the most dramatic historical event that happened over the course of 5 years.

There was a time that I thought we would never be able to “go back to normal”. I thought buffet restaurants were going to go extinct and every other restaurant would have a reduced occupancy. I thought large events like conferences and concerts would disappear and we would always have to have our temperatures checked before entering a building. The fact that we went so totally back to normal really did, and honestly still does, amaze me. Sometimes Marco and I will be in a crowded area, rubbing elbows with the people next to us and we’ll look at each other and say, “Covid, who?”.

In all seriousness, it was a very stressful, frustrating time. Nevertheless, it did allow me to take a year off of work after college, whether I wanted to or not, and it did teach me a lot; a lot about life, myself, and what to do when no one knows what to do. It also made me grateful for a lot of things that I certainly took for granted before the pandemic.