When I looked at the date today, it struck me that it was four years almost to the exact week when the country I live in went into lockdown, along with many other countries in the world.

What followed was a period of fear, uncertainty, loss and grief. It was also a period of renewal for Mother Earth as she used the opportunity to renew and re-energize herself. We witnessed the clearest skies, the greenest trees, wildlife freely roaming on roads that once were their home.

We all found a new normal in the face of impossible circumstances. From short supplies to finding a way to work, learn, live a life from home – humanity evolved, business and technology evolved.

Parents trying to provide as much a normal life as possible to their children found innovative ways to make meals and desserts at home with next to nothing in the form of ingredients. Many such recipes went viral. Suddenly, everyone (myself included) was attempting to make bread at home as bakeries could no longer operate.

Many homespun “remedies” for COVID-19 began to do the rounds. Some benign, some downright dangerous. Until vaccines came on the scene, the instability and fear shook all of us. We all either lost a loved one or watched helplessly as family and friends alike suffered through the couple of weeks it took to come out of the infection.

We lost our cleaning and maintenance support and many of us learnt basic life skills for the first time. I started a YouTube channel to show first timers how to cook basic things at home so it would help the many out there who maybe had not found the time or the reason yet in their lives to pick up basic cooking skills.

There was an element of complete isolation for any individual who went through this, which to me was one of the worst aspects of the pandemic. Being surrounded by family and friends, being pampered and being taken care of is one of the only benefits of falling sick, and we didn’t have this comfort and positive energy to bank on either. Video calls just couldn’t be an adequate substitute for that hand caressing your forehead or that warm concoction your grandmother would conjure that magically set everything right.

And that brings my string of thoughts to the angels that walk among us. The many, many personnel who work in the healthcare sector. Doctors, nurses, caretakers, mortuary workers… the list goes on and on. They had to put their own lives at risk to save that of so many others. Many lost their lives, an irreparable loss to their families, loved ones and the healthcare sector as a whole.

It was an upheaval on a global scale that most of us haven’t seen in this lifetime.

What followed was a spate of spontaneity. Many who could afford to, quit their jobs, deciding life was too short and went to do things they had put off for far too long. Others took the break they had put on the back burner for so long and travelled to places that began to welcome tourists earlier than others.

We also discovered that some of us, for reasons not fully known, suffered the after effects of being infected by COVID-19 way more than the majority population. Long COVID reared its ugly head and to this day, many people suffer debilitating symptoms, unable to pick up where they left off life when they got infected.

When I think back across these four years, a few patterns emerge for me:

The Good

1. Everyone has learnt to wash hands, wear a mask in crowded places, and such general best practices. It has in fact reduced the occurrence of even the regular kind of infections.

2. Gratitude has indeed become the right attitude. That neighbour who left food outside our door while the entire family went through a bout of COVID-19, that nurse who extended her shift to sit by our bedside and reduce that feeling of isolation… we have much to be grateful for.

3. Mental health got a lot of focus, recognition, acceptance and support. The stigma and lack of awareness surrounding mental health has definitely seen a reverse trend in the past few years.

The Bad

1. Many children lost precious years developing some very foundational social skills. To them, their first introduction to school has been a laptop with 20-30 bobbing heads on the screen. It will take some time for this generation of kids to be comfortable around other kids again.

2. Many women opted to leave the workforce due to losing their support system overnight that helped them to manage childcare and other family responsibilities. When it came down to it, most parents opted for the mother to go back to stay-at-home mode. Studies showed this was an unprecedented percentage of women who had to put their career aspirations on the back burner.

The Ugly

1. The isolative nature of the pandemic and the multiple lockdowns which kept us within the confines of our homes has resulted in many of us going through depression and other mental health related conditions. While this has also helped to bring in recognition and understanding of these conditions, it has sadly impacted many lives to this day. The struggle is very real.

2. Work life balance seems to be a thing of the past with layoffs first putting a lot of pressure on those that still found themselves with a job, but expected to pull the load of many others who were laid off. Once re-employed, the fear of job loss and other pressures continues to keep this balance off for many of us.

While the after effects of the pandemic linger in the form of the various ways in which our lives have changed and not for the better, on the other hand life is firmly and surely returning back to whatever was considered normal during pre-COVID times.

Or has it?

On the one hand, air travel is busier than it ever was before. On the other hand, we seldom take the time out to enjoy and live in the present.

On the one hand, schools have opened. On the other, social awkwardness, mental health issues continue to be on the rise.

On the one hand, most of those who lost their job are once again gainfully employed. On the other hand, work life balance never went back to pre-COVID levels.

On the one hand, online business models are flourishing and there is almost nothing you cannot buy online. On the other hand, that friendly local grocer and their little store have disappeared.

I don’t know if there is a solution to the glaring inconsistencies and imbalances we seem to have now accepted as the new normal. I do know that four years later, we still have a long way to go.

The first step probably is to define a healthier and more sustainable version of “the new normal”.