COVID Diary: Getting Lost in the Noise
It’s been a year now. A year since the world we knew fell to the ground. This post corona world is reality now. Do you remember what it’s like to see a smile in public that you don’t just notice because of the squint in someone’s eyes? Do you remember what it’s like to be in an arena full of at least five thousand people screaming and head banging to your favorite music? These things feel like fever dreams. When I turn on a TV and watch a show or a movie, sometimes my brain instantly goes to “why aren’t they wearing a mask?!”.
The days just flow into each other as if the calendar never existed, as if the days of the week never existed! And just when the world appeared to be at its’ darkest point since the influenza pandemic more than a century ago, things took an even darker turn.Social media grew more and more toxic, teenagers no longer could, or even wanted to complain about getting up for school every day, cities started burning down, old regimes began being questioned, everyone in America was either a racist or a radical, our families could no longer hug us goodbye, our presidential campaign was portrayed as if it were the Superbowl, shall I go on? With every check in on the news, the resting heart rate ofAmerica seemed to grow, and everywhere you went it was as if every single person was trying to prove their point. The past twelve months have been the most mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting time that anyone who didn’t serve in World WarII or own a couple Bitcoins have ever gone through. Will life ever go back to normal? How is it possible that one hundred years ago a flu pandemic lasted just about two years and with a century’s worth of advancements our world is on pace to have the same.
The internet has become the modern-day wild west, and every network on traditional television has hopped on the bandwagon of subscription-based streaming services. It feels like the world that Disney’s Wall-E imagined is just a stepping stone away from knocking on the doors of homes across the globe. It is so amazingly easy to get lost in the noise. This true even in normal circumstances. A decade ago, people were obsessing over Jersey Shore and the newest IOS update for Apple devices. Now though, every single morning there seems to be something new to worry or be upset about. Our species has an exceptional ability to adapt. In the blink of an eye, we can just accept a“new normal.” Even when that normal includes, half covered faces, a nationwide toilet paper shortage, and one of the greatest athletes of all time succumbing to a helicopter!The frustration is growing out of control.
When does the negative get outshined by the positive? When will Americans wake up and realize that they are fighting for the same territory? When will weekends matter to children again? Maybe this is becoming a rant, and maybe I don’t have the authority to even say these things. But somethings got to give! In a world filled with beauty in every canyon and corner, why must our species work around the clock trying to tear down everything? The weight of the world feels heavy upon everyone’s shoulders. I think we need a break. A glitch in the matrix that sets us to a time period where universal harmony isn’t just a theme in children’s literature.
It’s becoming harder and harder to not lose hope. But lose it I will not. And neither should you. The noise of it all may be just a little heavier than the days of realityTV stars and Kim and Kanye, but the sound of 7 billion heartbeats has the power to replace every facet of manmade negativity with bright, glowing, powerful positivity. I’ve lost sense of this world this past year. I pray to anything that will listen that the light at the end of the tunnels would shim just a little further down the stretch and that people everywhere, and especially in America, will wake from the greatest hibernation period in human history.
Let us all see the sunshine again
For the hope withing our hearts
Is the only thing worth fighting for
