Opinion: New normal is what we make it

As the mask restrictions lift, it makes me think about the last two years. Two years of policy adjustments, two years of forgetting to put on a mask or running into a locked door.

I led a number of trainings and presentations on COVID and its psychological impact. In the beginning, I talked about the “new normal” and embracing it to help reduce the stress of COVID. That said, the “new normal” was accepting the current reality of COVID and the “old normal” was going to return at some point.

After the first six months or so, I realized “new normal” wasn’t the right term to use during COVID, because nothing about COVID was normal. I also realized the old normal wasn’t what we should long for; we should be looking forward to creating a better normal post COVID, not returning to the old ways.

The reality of all of COVID is maybe we can see it like two years that really stunk, but which can springboard us to a new world. I will give you an example of what I mean if you allow me to drift on topic for a moment.

As a kid, I grew up around all my extended family in the Kansas City area, which meant every holiday I saw all my grandparents, all my cousins, and even second and third cousins and great aunts. Well, several years ago we moved to El Paso, and a few years ago here to Clovis, and so we are 300 or so miles from the closest relative now.

We could have said “Oh look, our world has changed, I hope we go back to the old traditions” but the reality is, some traditions are just a matter of “we have always done it, so we will always do it.” The old ways aren’t something that I particularly looked forward to as an adult, not just with holidays, but the “we have always done it” obligations of 100 years of history in a 50-mile radius. That’s a heavy load of obligation.

The great thing we experienced that most people don’t is the ability to create new traditions, new things, that one day will be old things. Every tradition started as a moment where something new was tried. Heck, our tradition is homemade pizza for Thanksgiving, thanks to the movie Free Birds.

What I am getting at with the nostalgic ramblings about holidays is that we have been given a chance to change things. “This is how we do it” was kicked aside by COVID and we get the chance to create a new world, a new way of life, now that the restrictions are lifting.

What it takes is embracing the hope of a better way moving forward. We can look at COVID as the chance, forced chance, to try new things and to create a reset of what we have always done and create instead what we want to do.

So “new normal” has taken on a whole different meaning for me now. It has taken on an air of hope, not despair, as it is the new normal we choose, it is the new normal we create, and the old hardships we leave out of the future.

Justin Nutt is a Clovis author, consultant and deputy executive director of Mental Health Resources, Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]