What was once normal is no longer so.
Days that were once filled with in-person meetings at the office, team sports on the weekends, and date nights with the significant other have all but vanished.
What was once “phone keys wallet” has since become “phone keys wallet mask.” We avoid everyone outside of our direct household, going against our social nature.
The new normal is now staying holed up at home, probably in pajamas for longer than what is socially accepted—then again, who’s to say what is and is not acceptable in times like these? In-person meetings now take place online, walks around the block replace going to the gym, and ordering in is the new eating out.
Or my favorite: cardboard cutouts of fans to fill empty stadiums at MLB games.
When was the last time that we as a global collective had to come to terms with such drastic changes? What could we learn from then?
Whether good or bad, the "old" normal will not be coming back, at least not in its entirety.
If an assembled LEGO set represented life before 2020, then the current state of affairs is like that same LEGO set dismantled into its individual bricks.
We as whole must reckon with this fact and together work towards building a better normal. That's the great thing about those toy bricks—the possibilities are endless. The new normal will be shaped by how creative we are as a society.