If the Pandemic Taught Us Anything, It’s That ‘Normal’ Wasn’t Serving Us

Now is the time to re-evaluate your relationships

Christina Tesoro, LCSW
5 min readApr 12, 2021
Photo by Mason Dahl on Unsplash

A common theme among my clients, as well as in my own life, is what do we do, now that we seem to be edging toward a return to “normal,” over a year since the COVID-19 pandemic began? March came and went, and as the days get longer and warmer, and more and more people get vaccinated, it’s a question on many people’s minds. In particular, folks seem to be asking, “What do I do now, with the information that I’ve learned about my friends and loved ones over the past year?”

Not everyone, after all, has operated in accordance with the same stringent safety regimens and precautions: From determined anti-maskers, to those who have treated the past year as an opportunity to take multiple vacations, to people who — whether because of chronic illness and high risk, or out of solidarity for friends and family members shouldering that risk — are still minimizing their time spent outdoors, in many ways, we’ve all had to live our values out in the open this year.

Folks seem to be asking: “What do I do now, with the information that I’ve learned about my friends and loved ones over the past year?”

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Christina Tesoro, LCSW

Christina Tesoro is a New York City-based writer, sex educator, and therapist.