EDITORIAL: We need to give ourselves more credit for what we have been through

We’ve all heard the phrase “the new normal” bandied around over the course of the pandemic.

Have we returned to the old days before face masks and social distancing or has that time in history changed us forever? What was originally proposed as a two week lockdown to “flatten the curve” morphed into two years of completely uncharted territory. 

It’s rare we give ourselves credit, particularly when the task in hand was never really highlighted as anything extraordinary, yet we’ve all displayed remarkable resilience by abiding by completely new concepts. In the not-so-distant past, we adjusted to garda checkpoints on the way to the supermarket, wearing face masks and seeing yellow posters in every business telling us to wash our hands and keep a safe distance.

We Googled five kilometres and tried to stay within it, and celebrated when we could finally travel throughout Tipp.
We watched painful television interviews conducted through video call, embracing the agonising delays, awkward silences, empty audiences and technical difficulties. We all had to adjust to technology in some capacity, be in through the HSE Covid Tracker App or by becoming versed in making a video call.

For students, the laptop became their campus with breakout rooms becoming the most dreaded occurrence of the day. Birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries and all the important milestones in our lives were turned on their heads, and for the most part we adjusted and even made some unique memories to boot.

While the pandemic is quickly becoming a memory rather than a reality for the majority, remember the effort it took from all of us to where we are today. It’s not easy to upturn routine and embrace the dreaded “new normal” despite wishing everything would remain unchanged.

It proved that as a collective, we can work together and change when needed. The collateral effects of long Covid and social isolation are still here, however it’s time we gave ourselves credit for the resilience we showed in the face of the unknown.