Life is all about adjustments. From the moment we enter the world from our mother's womb, we're making adjustments. Adjusting to light and dark. Adjusting to breathing on our own. Adjusting to the different tastes and textures of solid food. As toddlers, we adjust to being able to walk on our own and exploring the world around us. As we get older, we adjust to going to school and being away from home and our parents all day. Middle school and high school brings adjustments like going to a different school and changing classes every hour. As teenagers, we learn to drive and learn responsibility with our first jobs and adjusting to having to balance work and school and friends. If you go away to college, you have to adjust to being on your own, away from home, making new friends while balancing schoolwork and free time.
For the first 18 to 22 years, our lives are governed by the school year. There is always a beginning every fall and an end every spring. The "school year" and "summer" are two completely different things with different priorities. But because it's basically all you've ever known, there's some comfort in that cadence - knowing there's always a light at the end of the tunnel, whether it's winter break or summer.
Which brings us to what I found to be one of the most difficult adjustments of all: having a job and living in the "real world." Unless you're a teacher, you have to adjust to a completely different cadence, where January is basically the same as July. The annual beginning and end we've grown up with no longer exists and we have to adjust to the fact that there's no built in beginning or end. There's no "summer break" to look forward to. It takes a few years to adjust from having 3-4 months off every year to having, if you're lucky, 3-4 weeks off. In addition to that, you have to adjust to paying bills for cars and credit cards and rent or mortgages. It's a sea change - a completely different circumstance than you've grown used to for the first few decades of your life. And it's a new reality that will last about twice as long as your previous reality.
Even once we settle into adulthood, the adjustments don't stop. Getting married? You have to adjust to sharing everything - your life, your finances, your bed - with someone else. Having kids? You have to adjust to the responsibility that comes with raising another human being. The sleep deprivation. The expense. The fears and worries, the joy and the heartaches. And each phase of your child's life interacts with the phases of your own life and it requires adjustments upon adjustments. Change is the only constant.
Now, in the face of the current pandemic, we are having to adjust to things we likely never envisioned. If you're lucky, you're adjusting to working from home and not being able to shop or dine out as you normally would. If you're less fortunate, you're adjusting to being out of a job and worried about how to pay the bills or feed yourself and your family. The current restrictions on mobility and the requirements for social distancing are unlike anything anyone alive has ever experienced. They require all of us - students, adults, workers, retirees and everyone in between to once again adjust.
Is it going to be easy? No. It's tough not being able to see friends and relatives, not being able to get together to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and graduations. It's tough to not be able to go out to eat or to go shopping. For those who are out of work, it's even more difficult because that lack of income brings with it all kinds of other stresses and concerns. But I have faith that we can do it. After all, each and every one of us has adjusted to so many changes in our lives and it is our adaptability that has allowed humankind to survive previous pandemics and plagues, recessions and depressions. It may not be easy or fun, but we can do it.
In the interim, enjoy the extra time with your family and pets. Enjoy short commutes and the ability to work in your pajamas. Enjoy showering less and sleeping more. At some point, this "new normal" will fade away and we'll return to the schools and office buildings, restaurants and stores, churches and arenas that we frequented before. What that happens, those things we took for granted for so long will seem that much sweeter.
Until then, pass the remote. I have some shows to binge on Netflix...
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