COVID forever

Sophia sat down at the kitchen table to eat lunch. Grilled cheese sandwich with smoked mozzarella on freshly baked sourdough bread, a side salad with honey dijon vinaigrette and a homemade pickle on the side. 

She listened to the radio as she ate. She usually let CBC Radio One play throughout the day. At 1pm, the hourly news started.

“More vaccines are headed to Canada,” the announcer said. “This comes as a welcome relief to Canadians who are ready to enjoy their summers and get back to normal.”

This news did not come as a welcome relief to Sophia. Instead, she felt a deep sense of dread. She couldn’t admit it to anyone, but she secretly hoped the pandemic would go on forever. She looked down at her delicious home made lunch. How much longer would this last? Going back to the office would mean either cold leftovers or overpriced salads for lunch every day. 

And what about the commute? It took Sophia forty minutes each way on public transportation to get to her downtown office. Not to mention the cost! 

Returning to the office would also mean the return of small talk, monthly birthday cake gatherings in the break room and team building exercises. Now that all the interruptions were gone, Sophia was able to get all her work done in about two hours a day. She had the rest of the day to do whatever she wanted. Tend to her plants, browse Reddit, FaceTime her mom or even watch a movie. Like everyone else, Sophia had the occasional Zoom meeting. But early on she discovered she could simply mute herself, turn the camera off and read a book. Over the past year, she had read ten books during Zoom meetings alone.

She wanted to cry when she thought about life returning to normal. She had accomplished so much during the pandemic! Since March 2020, Sophia had painted her apartment, written five chapters of a novel, finished three courses on Coursera and taught her cat how to give a high five. And then there were her kitchen accomplishments! She mastered bread baking, including sour dough, no-knead, focaccia and French baguettes, she learned how to pickle pretty much anything and she had even learned how to make her own cheese.

She knew it was wrong to feel this way. People were suffering. People were sick and people died. People had lost their jobs and were struggling to keep their businesses afloat. But for Sophia - and she felt awful even thinking this - the pandemic was the best thing that had ever happened to her! 

She was already starting to get anxiety thinking about going to social events. Before the pandemic, it was always one thing after another. Someone’s birthday, someone’s partner’s birthday. The same conversations over and over again. Sophia was so sick of talking about Toronto real estate. Houses in Toronto are expensive! What else is there to say? And yet, people always found a way to talk about real estate for hours! Sophia preferred her own company. She would rather read a book or watch a documentary than go to an overpriced restaurant with mediocre food. Going to restaurants would be even worse now, knowing she could make something even better herself.

But what would her excuse be once she and all her friends were vaccinated? It’s not like you can just say no to an invitation for no reason. 

Wait, said a little voice in Sophia’s head. Why can’t you just say no?

Sophia played out the interaction in her head.

“Hey Sophia!” her friend would call and say. “We’re getting together for drinks this weekend. Do you want to come?”

“No thank you,” Sophia would say. 

“Okay, maybe next time,” the friend would respond.

Could it really be that simple? Could you just say no?

And what about working from home? Sophia played out a different conversation in her head.

“I find I am much more productive at home,” she would say to her boss. “In addition, working from home means I don’t have to commute, which greatly improves my quality of life. I would like to continue to work from home as much as possible.”

“Perhaps we can arrange something,” her boss would say.

Sophia felt a little thrill at the thought. Even if her boss refused to let her work from home, she could always look for a new job that allowed remote work. She started munching on her sandwich again.

“Next on CBC is The Current with Matt Galloway,” she heard on the radio. “We’re talking about the vaccine rollout and how you shouldn’t expect life to go back to normal just yet.

Thank god, Sophia thought.