Staff Editorial
Waiting for a post-pandemic world
Graphic by Grace Peng, Managing Online & Social Media Editor
Suhani Mahajan, Staff Writer
Graduating almost always guarantees a party. So does turning 16. Or 45. Or 9. And then there are anniversaries: wedding, dating, friendship - you name it; humans like celebrating anything and everything. Ah, and then there are the have-a-good-day hugs, and the you’re-not-alone hand squeezes. There are the I-can-finally-drive-my-friends-around afternoon sunset-chasing car rides, and before that, there are the Oh-my-gosh-there’s-a-stranger-in-my-car-who’s-about-to-decide-if-I-will-be-able-to-finally-drive-around-without-my-mom-screaming-at-me-when-I’m-going-28-in-a-25 car rides that start at the DMV which, arguably, are even more important than the former.
There are boba-after-school-on-Friday dates; or, if you’re not a fan of tea, there’s always a Starbucks in the same complex as the ever-popular Northview hangout spot, Ding Tea. On the days when you feel too lazy to dress up and go out, you call up your friends and say ‘come lounge on my couch with me. Bring snacks.’ And when everyone’s agreed to go all out, there’s the hand-holding and subtle back touches that say ‘I’m here; keep going.
There are the aunts who deliver the dreaded look-at-your-adorable-baby-face! cheek pinches that leave you looking like you fell into a vat of blush while it was being manufactured in a L'Oréal factory, or wherever else their makeup is made. And then there are the little baby cousins who run up to you whenever they see you and try to climb up your legs to get into your arms.
There’s that moment in class when you smile at a teacher as both of you know that you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing, and you both also know that you need all the help you can get. There’s the waving at kids in the hallways, and every year, making yourself a promise that you’ll know everyone by the end of the year. There are club meetings where you eat after school snacks and bond over shared interests. And if not those, there are the bus rides home, with the bus drivers having to give a mandated statement: ‘Wear your seatbelts.’ Those bus drivers are the best, by the way. They wait for you on the mornings you’re running late because they know the bus is your only way to get to school, and they know all your facial expressions, so when you get on the bus in the afternoon, they know if they need to make a joke because you look like it wasn’t a good day.
And away from the Johns Creek life, there are the friends who live in different states -because not all of us are born and raised Johns Creekians. They wait at home for news that you’ll be coming over again for homecoming - maybe even prom.
What’s left? Does anything remain? When will there ever be a homecoming to go to? Is takeout the only future for food businesses? When will we go to libraries again? When will Friday night football games go back to being the norm? When will it be safe enough to do anything the way we used to?
Please, please consider not meeting your friends in person this week. A majority of us have phones (you’re probably reading this on your phone!) and phones used to be for calling, remember? (If that’s not your cup of tea/coffee, there’s always FaceTime!) But if you must go out, there’s no scarcity of masks anymore; in fact, we’ve made them fashion accessories. Let’s not forget why they became popular enough to ‘trend’, though.
In-person school has been postponed. We must wait. People can’t see their families. We must wait. Thousands have died. Family, friends, all beloved. We must wait.
This is a big problem. It feels too scary to deal with head-on sometimes, no doubt about that, but the important thing to remember is that a problem only grows when people contribute to it. Staying at home isn’t that difficult; introverts have been doing it since, well, since humanity came to be. In a time when it’s dangerous to the world to be an extrovert, learn from the introverts. Sit at home. Wait for a post-pandemic life, because that’s the only way we’ll get there.
