What Will You Do When This Is Over?

There are a lot of things most of us haven’t done for a while; get a haircut, go out to dinner, go to the movies. And as they relax quarantines and people get back out into the world, many of us will rush to do things we have missed for weeks, if not months.

We all need our hair done. Whether just a cut or a full day at the spa, there is a reason people stopped doing their own hair at home. I’m one of the lucky ones. I don’t have much hair and I stopped caring what it looked like a couple of decades back.

Eating out is something I both miss and don’t. I haven’t gone hungry. And the time, effort, and money required to get a decent meal out isn’t something I’ve missed. But having someone wait on me and bring me food ready to eat. That would be nice.

I don’t know when or if we will feel comfortable sitting shoulder to shoulder in a dark room to watch an overpriced movie while eating criminally overpriced crap. But it could happen.

Travel? I’m not even going to think about that for a while.

But all that isn’t what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about doing something new. After weeks of confinement, we will feel like young birds being shoved out of our nests and learning to fly. What will you do with that new freedom?

We have been locked up and frozen for weeks. Our processors are sluggish and our screens aren’t refreshing at all anymore. But we are about to reboot. Ctrl-Alt-Del. Memories will be wiped and caches will be cleared. Time to load in some new software.

Besides re-discovering all the things we have been missing and are eager to experience again, I think we should take this opportunity to try something new. It can be something from your bucket list or some wild idea that popped into your head during endless days of isolation.

For me, I think it will be the guitar. I owned a couple when I was younger. Much, much younger. And I approached learning and mastering it with the focus and attention span of a teenager. In other words, I did a crappy job of it. Eventually, I gave away the dust collecting boxes of wood and steel.

But lately, the thought of learning again (or for the first time, really) has been noodling in the back of my brain. It started with stumbling across a guitar lesson on YouTube. Kids, I want you to cover your eyes and ears while I explain this next part.

We didn’t have the Internet when I was a teenager.

Although I have been embracing technology for 40 years, I am still amazed at what you can get and learn online. On-demand guitar lessons. Wow. As much as I hate this particular cliche, that will be a game-changer.

The other thing that has changed in the last five decades is money. I have some. I remember agonizing over what to buy for dinner.

Doritos or a six-pack.

I couldn’t afford both. I remember buying my first guitar. It was way more expensive than I had any reason to spend, but I worked for it and saved for it. It put off buying my first car for a year.

Now I can have both. And Doritos with a six-pack if I so desire.

I haven’t bought the guitar yet, but I have imagined walking into the store. “What is your budget?”

Don’t have one.

That doesn’t mean I will buy a $3,000 Martin. More likely it will be a $300 Yamaha. But I could. Plus all the crap that comes with it. A case, stand, strings, picks, tuner, whatever. This will be fun.

But the really fun part, and what I want you to think about, is just trying something new. Applying myself and committing a significant amount of time to learn and doing something new.

I’ve been watching some of those videos and I know what I am getting into. Hours of repeating scales and chords. Not like Bryan Adams, until my fingers bleed. But I’ll play until they get really sore. I’m badass like that. Repetition. Building on each day and learning the craft.

Much like I did with photography and writing.

Then, maybe, when the next pandemic or zombie apocalypse rolls around, I’ll have something else to do while isolated.

I can play the blues.