For almost seven months now our world has been very abnormal. Due to the coronavirus, people have had to do many things different from what they were used to. They have started to get used to putting on a mask to enter a building, excessively using hand sanitizer and soap, getting their temperature checked, not being at school everyday and staying six feet apart. How long will this last? Is this the new normal?

Some people believe that they should have been taking these precautions their whole lives to begin with. For some things, such as using hand sanitizer and not sharing germ-covered items, that may be true; however, most people imagine their future without masks or having to stay away from others. 

After a while the world might have to decide to either just forget about it, and go back to the way life was and be at risk to the virus, or have to make this the new normal.

Many people think that things will go back to normal in 2021. They are filled with the hope that a new year will bring a new and better way of life. They think with the new year the virus will just disappear. In contrast, other people are thinking on the more realistic side, that the virus isn’t just going to go away anytime soon. 

How long will you have to wear a mask? How long will the airports be almost empty? How long will the number of people allowed in a building be limited? How long will students be doing online or partial school? How long will large gatherings not be allowed? These are questions that are asked everyday, but cannot be answered. 

Once the vaccine comes out things might start to change. But how long will that take? According to the CDC the first flu pandemic started in 1918 and people had no knowledge of how to cure it without just waiting for it to pass. Finally in 1933 it was discovered as a virus not bacteria and people began to work on a cure. The vaccine wasn’t approved for civilian use until 1945. That’s a long time. With modern technology, the coronavirus vaccine is hoped to come out faster than that, but no one can make any promises.

Some people have made educated guesses on when the vaccine will come out and things will start to return to normal, but they can’t know for sure. 

People just want to go back to the way it was last year, that’s normal for them. But what about for the younger generation. This world might seem normal to them because they don’t remember the way things were before, they’re growing up with this way of life.

Just think about all your memories from your childhood, and how different they would be if the coronavirus was during that time. There wouldn’t be big birthday parties, you wouldn’t get to play with all the kids in your kindergarten class, and all those memories from entertainment centers, like trampoline parks or movie theaters, wouldn’t be the same. 

How long will we have to live like this? This is a question that no one can answer. In today’s world, we can only live one day at a time. There’s no telling what our future holds.