In the days before COVID-19, occasional expressions of disbelief at the passage of time were common, mostly mundane and occasionally trite conversation starters.
“I can’t believe it’s Valentine’s Day already!”
“It’s June already? Wow, the year is half over!”
“Can you believe it’s Labor Day already? I can’t believe summer is over.”
“Halloween!?”
“Oh my God, I can’t believe it’s Christmas already! Where did the year go?”
Now, however, in the days since March — when we were first told to stay home at all costs and then gradually allowed to venture out — the days seemed to blend together into one, long, hazy picture.
Those who are fortunate enough to work from home have the privilege of confusion.
Is today Tuesday? No, it’s Wednesday. Wait what was yesterday? Monday?
While three-day weekends are still welcome, in this current climate of restricted movement, the luster of a day off from work is slightly tarnished. When you can show up to the home office every day in pajama bottoms and socks and get your work done without interruption from colleagues, isn’t every day a virtual holiday?
The change in routine these last three and a half months have prompted us to experience time in myriad ways.
In the early days when we could go nowhere except shopping for groceries and to the doctor, the days and nights were interminable.
As parks, beaches and public spaces opened there was a break in the interminable monotony, especially if one was captured in the home with a partner or spouse who was testing the boundaries of the vows ’til death do us part.
But step back from a now routine life during a pandemic and we see this long, dreadful, anxious year is half over. Many of us are fortunate to have made it this far.
It seems like yesterday when we were told not to go out at all for fear of spreading the virus. Now we bristle at the notion of having to limit our activity again after having a brief taste of quasi normalcy.
Time drags on as we wait for a time when we can again be with our family and friends without fear of infection. But it is obvious at this halfway point through the year, time still flashes by.
