Normal

If 2019 was a “Normal” person, it saw 2020 and all succeeding years as other “Normal” persons.

However, 2020 changed and became an odd “New” person. Because of the major and significant changes, 2020 decided to call 2021 the “Next Normal” person.

When 2021 was born, it became the “New Normal” making 2020 and all years before it as “Old Normal”, maybe “Not Normal”.

When 2022 will come out to the world, will it just be another “Normal” person like 2021, but version 2.0. The upgrade is a result of the strength it gathered from battling up and settling with the COVID-19 pandemic.

What if 2022 or 2023 becomes a “Normal” person like 2019, the version 1.0? Are we going to call it the “Old Normal”? “Modified Normal”? “Normal with High Personality”? “Normal Level 1”?

What The Quarantine Has Made Me Realise, So Far

The Word of the Year for 2020 would be a battle between “nCoV”, “coronavirus”, “quarantine”, “lockdown”, “COVID-19”, and perhaps a statement like “Stay at home.” Or maybe “new normal”. This is the least of our worries now, however, because we are all still trying to unlock the solution to this COVID-19 outbreak. Some of us are frontliners. Majority of us are supposed to be staying at home. Some of us are at the edge fighting to get back to normal status, while some of us, unfortunately, had fallen under the spell of the disease.

There are many things that we thought were impossible before this pandemic. We are doing some of these things or actions now, and these might become or compose the “new normal” for all of us. In my case, here are my realisations:

1. I don’t need to go to the office to be productive. For the last thirty plus days, I think, I was more productive. I was able to write essays, concept papers, read on topics like “branding”, “science policy”, “streamlining”, and even a chapter or two of The Maze Runner book series. What I do is just check my official e-mail every now and then, so I could finish instructions/tasks without diversions, unlike in the office, where phone rings can block your line of vision or interfere with your momentum.
2. I don’t need to go to the office Monday to Friday to finish my work. I have realised that any day of the week can be a work day, and any time of the day can be a good time to work.
3. The office can deliver its outputs with a skeletal force. This might not be a good realization because this would mean the removal of some regular/permanent positions that have overlapping terms of reference or non-addition of regular items. If there are lesser tenured personnel, the lesser number of people who would be supported by the government with retirement benefits. If the workload needs additional support staff, non-government workers (NGWs) can be hired. These NGWs need not to go to the office to do research and other related works. They can just be provided with schedule on the submission of reports. With this scheme, the government can save on utility expenses.
4. We need to invest more on “digitization”. I know, we always claim that we are already living in a digital era. Sadly, we are not yet fully computerized. We are still afraid to optimize or maximize the potential of online tools and applications. We still go back to how we do things in the past. We have been communicating with other people through email, text, or chat anytime of the day, but some people still go back to printing draft documents, worse when producing hard copies of meeting documents in reams and reams of papers. Can we please just use the email for revising documents?
5. We can go to nearby places on foot. In other words, we do not need cars or jeepneys to go to a mall, if it is just twenty minutes away by walking.
6. We can do household chores on our own. I used to wash my own clothes and cook my own food. But because of work schedule and requirements, I resorted to food delivery apps for my meals, and DIY launderette for washing my clothes. Because of the quarantine, I had no other option but to do these chores again. And I am happy, because I am saving a lot of money.
7. We can go to the mall once a week. Have you seen the lines outside supermarkets or malls now that we are under quarantine? Yes, it is long, long enough to make you think twice if you really need the things you are going to buy inside the mall. Before the quarantine period, can you remember how many times did you go to the mall? More than ten times? Including those moments when you just needed to buy iced coffee, even if you can make your own at home? This quarantine season, I realised that I do not need to go to the mall twice or more in a week. All I need is a day. While writing this, I am even thinking of a scenario where all establishments have gone online, which means that all transactions are done in front of a computer, including the schedule of pick-up or delivery of the goods. With this scheme, people will no longer congregate inside malls just because they want to go there.

 How about you? Do you have any realisation?