The Morning After Pandemic

I don't know about you, but I'm starting to regret taking life for granted right about now. Amidst a third lockdown where the whole world has dwindled into ghost towns and bankrupt stores, I too am feeling alone and without purpose. Sadly, I think we're all following the same sort of lines at the moment — and it truly is a heartbreaking sight. Just seeing the landmarks I know and love lose business and crumble under the pressures of rules and cutthroat regulations; it's hard to envision ever seeing them re-open their dusty doors to crowds of luminous smiles ever again.

All around the UK, people are closing their doors and shadowing themselves for yet another two months. Schools are resorting to online learning, despite the countless errors and loopholes, and the elderly are being shut out once more without a helping hand. We're locking the world that we know and love — and we're losing sight of the key altogether.

It's times like these that we begin to regret taking the smallest of things for granted. Going for a drink in your local coffee shop, sitting in the park with your family, venturing anywhere you please without having to adhere to government restrictions. It all seems like a bad dream — and yet here we are — still waking up to a silent world where 2019 feels like an eternity ago.

For well over a year, we have faced the toughest times as a generation, and we have had to prove ourselves time and time again. We've followed the rabbit hole for so long that we're almost wondering where the ladder leading out disappeared to. Sort of like a dream; we're forever falling into a bottomless abyss without any idea as to when we'll wake up. But, you know, we have to believe that one day in the near future we'll be able to open our eyes and say to ourselves, "Coronavirus really was just a bad dream."

The sun will beam down upon all regions of every corner of the world, and every door will creak open after an incredibly long slumber. Shops will reignite their neon signs, bakeries will put out their freshest selection, and every small business owner will unlock their doors to a whole future of potential.

As a species, we will leave our homes, and we will embrace our neighbours, friends and family with nothing but glee and heartfelt memories. We'll meet our friends for a drink down at the local bar, we'll take our other halves out for that romantic dinner we promised six months ago — and we'll book that all-important holiday abroad with our families, too. Parties will return in full swing, birthdays will be caught up on and celebrated belatedly, and every milestone will be recaptured in a new world where nothing holds us back.

It may seem like an impossible feat these days — but we're still dreaming, friend. We may not wake up tomorrow, or even the next day — but we will wake up and reclaim the lost time stolen from us. Everything that has been taken we will work twice as hard to reconnect, no matter the cost. It just starts with patience, and a strong determination to see tomorrow through no matter the forecast.

We're born to survive and prevail — because the world really has overcome obstacles ten times the size as this pandemic. Of course, we're afraid of what the future might bring for us, and we're worrying about things that might not have even been mentioned yet. But, honestly — trust that we will beat this the same way we've beaten every other battle thrown at us. Nothing can last forever.

It seems a great distance away for now — but we'll get there. Before long we'll be toasting to the demise of the pandemic and looking to rebuild from the ashes of 2020. Today, however, we sit in our homes and twiddle our thumbs — hoping that the news will have a slight change of heart. Perhaps, tomorrow — it might just be the news we all long for. Hang in there, bud.