What’s the first thing you did out of quarantine that made you feel normal?
A collection of students’ experiences post-lockdown
Date Night Revisited
Marie-Ève Ducharme
When Montreal finally hit the green zone, the first thing I did was attend a comedy show, followed by dinner at a nice restaurant. It was my first proper date with my partner, after a year and a half of trying to recreate dates at home. It felt good to see other people without masks eating at their tables, or to see others laughing at jokes during the show. Mostly, I realized how the pandemic changed our lives. We acknowledged the chance that we had to be together during this wonderful evening, realizing that something ordinary before the pandemic seemed to be the best night of 2020 and 2021 combined.
Appreciating the Bigger Picture
Hanine El Mir
Once things started loosening up a bit, and the vaccination process was sped up, the very first thing I did out of quarantine was go on a ride in the metro. I was looking at everyone around me living their lives once again. I had seen that a café I had been meaning to check out since 2020 opened its indoor area at a very limited capacity. I got a coffee, opened my laptop, and got to writing. During the year we spent at home, I realized that the things I missed the most were not the main events, but the journeys I went on to get to them. The bus rides, the few minutes of chatting with friends before and after classes, even waiting by the coffee machine with co-workers. These little things cushion everything we do. I realized that we had failed to consider these elements that made up a bigger picture.
Burger? I Hardly Even Know Her
Celine Blais
I had gotten quite familiar with all of the ins and outs from one lockdown to the next. The teetering back-and-forth from total isolation to a full work week. With no social life, it became harder for me to grasp onto any kind of hope for normalcy. My body had become accustomed to seeing the four walls of my apartment instead of the lit up streets in my own neighbourhood as soon as the clock struck 8 p.m. After the restrictions were lifted, life as I learnt to live it would flip once more, leaving a promising glimpse of faith in its place. I hadn’t seen the outside world after nightfall in what felt like a lifetime. Yet there I was, first night post-curfew, a burger in one hand and my friend’s hand in the other, walking home at 3 a.m. from St. Henri all the way to the Mile End. In that moment, strutting through the cold downtown streets, a little buzzed and wearing an obnoxious coat, life before the pandemic didn’t feel as distant.
No Hugs, No Problem
Bri Kang
My friends and I had made a rule that we would only have indoor gatherings with other fully-vaccinated people. In July, three of my friends and I decided to have a small dinner party at my friend’s place. It felt somewhat like old times, except hugs were not involved. During the pandemic, I refused to see many people unless we were outdoors and at a distance. It felt scary yet fun to be able to see my friends in a different setting again. However, with the Delta variant making its way here, I don’t think I’ll feel very comfortable doing this until we receive more data on breakthrough cases. Hanging out was fun for the four hours that that dinner party lasted.
This article originally appeared in The Reorientation Issue, published September 7, 2021.
