Change 1: The Pandemic Has Passed — A Quick Subjective Stock of the Change Since

Short: Starting a new series of posts on change, I take stock of the ideas around the change from the COVID pandemic state to its post-pandemic current state and give you an obviously important advice.

Source: https://www.deutschland.de/en/news/german-federal-government-informs-about-the-corona-crisis

Thanks to my colleague Adrian for putting me on this idea of looking at the change since the end of the pandemic for today’s blog post.

To be honest, I had fancied the idea to look at the transition from pandemic state to the post-pandemic state for a while now. However I had never really felt as if it was the right time. Initially I had a hard time finding the right spot when the pandemic was over. Then it felt as if I might have been too late (and also confronted with a general exhaustion toward the topic and also confronted with new international crises that overshadow retrospective reflection far too often). Now it feels like a mixture of both: Is it already, over looking at the echo that COVID now portraiys in the flu season and promises to portray in the future? But also -> lock-down and mask mandates have now moved further still into the past and many memories have faded.
So I guess I have my answer: Now is the best time to write about my perceived change from pandemic times to now. (obvious disclaimer: POV is naturally biased towards my perception from within Germany)

The first thought around which I want to structure this post, is (1) the sneaky brutality with which a radically different situation becomes normal and the Before is somewhat forgotten. This was true during the pandemic, where I felt myself and peers mostly adapt the status quo quite quickly (considering the circumstances). Even those that abviousely protested it frequently did so in a way that was more born from protesters adoption of a different narrative as truth, rather than keeping their prior view (COVID protesters might have had motivation in wanting the world to stay the same but in how they built many of their narratives — e.g. of a manipulative goverment — they rather adopted a normalcy in this new situation as well). But it feels to me this is true again with the end of the pandemic; even though it isn’t quite as neat to pinpoint the end. I’d argue that different people of different groups felt at different times that the pandemic was over. The perception of many logically were strongly influenced by the state of restrictions. But as I state often here, I have a hard time to quite place a transitional event, which I also want to use as an argument for my brains speed of adoption of a new status quo (maybe also influenced by the quite egotistical habiti of Berliners and the resulting negligence regarding healthy safety of peers that many of my co-citizens had already shown during the pandemic).

The second thought for my perception around this topic of change and change perception is (2) that there are many ways in which procedures, processes, manners and behaviours are still perceptable to this day and likely for (at least a while) longer. This might also feature into the fuzziness of not knowing when the pandemic was over. There is “stuff that stays” all over the place. Some exaples: a) Stores often kept the acrylic glas panes at the checkout desks; b) During flu season commuters still utilize masks to keep themselves and/or others healthy (I started doing this again and felt how much less anxious on packed public transport, when I am wearing an FFP2-mask. I have also not gotten seriousely sick this flu season.) c) Hand sanitizers are still provided in many stores and institutions (I also kept washing or desinfecting my hands when I come home). This might tie into the sneakyness with which we adopt new situations. There are still loads of actions and habits around us that we recognize from earlier, even if other aspects change drastically.

The third thought goes to (3) the perception of change. What did change for me, and felt as one of the most indicative aspects to contrast to the pandemic time, was the participation in events with many people. From my work these were often in-person networking events such as conferences, exhibitions and committee meetings. Meeting strangers in an unassuming context where the interaction was actually limited to getting to know the other and to understand their interests is probably the biggest difference for me; although the size of events I went to ramped up with my professional experience in the new job, which coincided with the lifting of restrictions (so I don’t really have a pandemic reference point). Me starting to settle in in Berlin was more or less at a time when I’d say the pandemic was fading out. So this luckily coincided with the possibility to get to know new people. The second big indicator for me was the re-emmergence of clubs and associations. I still have to become better at re-learning a sense of regularity in visiting my archery club, but every training I feel a sense of spontaneous belonging due to a shared cause that I missed during the pandemic.

Let me now come to a conclusion of this short reflexion and retrospective. As frequently happens during the time I sit down to write my posts I get to learn new things along the writing process. When Adrian asked me to write about the transition of pandemic-time to post-pandemic-time I had simply not known how bad I was at pinpointing the inflection point between the two phases; or what was the strongest indicators of the change since … { The vacation trips! This came to me just now; but a third very important indicator of difference — to me — is the change in planing and spending my holidays. This goes for friends visiting and visiting friends as much as for traveling abroad or renting AirBnBs with my partner. I love how I can do this again in good conscience!} … have been. The idea, which I just decided that I wanted to give you on your way today is this. Take time to think about how your life as changed, is changing, and will change. If you don’t, Change, that sneaky @!$%§!€& is going to surprise you unpleasantly again.

Thanks for reading <3 Stay beautiful!

• Note: As I think, I will like to have a few more looks at the topic of change I preficed this post with “Change 1”