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The Mindset Shift That Will Get Us Through the Pandemic Home Stretch
With normal feeling tantalizingly close, it’s time to reconsider how we think about trust
I got my Covid vaccine a couple weeks ago (Johnson and Johnson, in case anyone was wondering). If you’ve received yours, too, you know exactly what I’m talking about when I say the wave of emotions hit as soon as I felt the needle in my arm. Gratitude. Joy. Relief. And coursing underneath it all was the unmistakable rush of adrenaline: Every cell in my body seemed to be screaming at me to throw a party, jam myself into a crowded indoor happy hour, do all the things I so desperately craved.
Maybe most of all, though, I was thrilled to finally be rid of the phrase that’s been a bane of my pandemic experience, the one that’s come up too many times when I tried to figure out how to see friends or family: It’s okay, I trust you. I’ve heard it. I’ve thought it myself. And I’ve always hated it.
Living through a pandemic, as we’ve all learned, means constantly calculating risk. That calculus looks different post-vaccination. But in one way, it remains very much the same. In this home stretch, it’s harder and more vital than ever to remember: The virus has never known, or cared, who our friends are.
