‘Pandemic’, I’d read about it in my epidemiology class, but I’d never thought I’d experience this nightmare. And yet, here I am. And yet, we all are in this upheaval. This year has changed us, challenged us and shaped us into being more resilient, and perhaps more human. Amidst wearing masks, staying indoors, and sanitizing my hands million times, I’ve consolidated some transformations in my everyday life—some on the lighter side, and some somber moments of surviving the pandemic life in 2020.

At the start of the pandemic, I bought a set of masks from Costco—black, blue, and red. My hubby took the black one leaving me with the everyday difficult decision to choose.

In fact, wearing masks has some unintended benefits too. The hair on my chin is now a masked secret! I’m enjoying freedom from removing my chin hair and a respite from the beauty norm. And talking about hair removal, I realize this physical distancing of 6-feet is a bonus on days I don’t shave my legs. No one notices the tiny hair sprouts unless their eagle eyes stare at my legs and secretly judge me.

On the same subject of beauty, my lipsticks are drying up. If you follow the market, would you confirm if the sales of lipsticks plummeted? The red lipstick, which used to be a little pick-me-up, is now nothing but a nasty stain on my mask.

Now that the lips are out, eyes can shine. I make sure to put eyeliner and smile ear-to-ear for the extra twinkle in my eyes. Try this tip, and share how your eyes look and make you feel. But above all, I feel ears deserve more credit than we rightfully bestow. They’re doing much of the heavy lifting of the pandemic with mask elastics, eyeglass stems, earphone buds, and not to forget those razzle-dazzle earrings happily hanging from our ears. So cheers to our ears for all their hard work! APPLAUSE!

I haven’t visited malls lately, but my gut says that the office fashion has transformed into more relaxed outfits with sweat pants and loungewear look-a-likes. At our house, we all love staying in cozy pajamas. The day I feel fancy, I top them with a frill top and fancy earrings.

Also, I discovered when I mask-up my face, my brain acts funny. Yes, that’s how I felt the first few weeks of the pandemic. I’d go to the grocery store and forget stuff as though part of my brain is blindfolded. My retail therapy sessions have altered too. I typically enjoy wandering in malls and window shopping to elevate my mood, which I still manage to do, though in grocery stores, and for a brief time. As I poetically pick a perfumed goat milk soap to draw-in its fragrance, ready to get consumed by its magical scent. I smell nothing! Zilch! I re-read the label. It said ‘FRANKINCENSE.’ Before blaming the company for ebbing the fragrance, I suck-in the air so deeply that I almost snorted. I was rewarded with a hint of frankincense fragrance. Based on these experiences, I’d say the perfume industry is scrambling to punch-up their scents.

Not only has pandemic impacted the ability to smell, but it also turned sneezing or coughing in public (with your mask on, of course) into a much more embarrassing episode than farting in public.

Additionally, these strange times forced me to browse through ‘how to do a haircut’ videos on youtube, and I’m proud to announce I can actually chop my kids’ hair to perfection. My son now wants me to open a neighborhood barbershop.

Like many of you, our family thought of investing in outdoor activities like biking in the neighborhood. And that’s when the epic search for a bike began. I was welcomed by bare shelves and long waits. The bike inventory in the US market dwindled while the demand surged. After a long hunting saga, I bought a bike for my son. And let me sum it up- bikes are the new diamonds- a rare find and an expression of true love!

This pandemic proves it once again that our human brain wants to do what we’re told not do. The world is broadcasting the message of ‘SOCIAL DISTANCING’ while we are connecting socially with our people more than ever. As a daily routine, I video conference with my family in India, and we chat about everyday stuff and engage in silly banter. We laugh together and comfort each other. With limited options of eating out, we share recipes like there’s no tomorrow.

Furthermore, people or families seeking more companionship are now filling the void with pets. They are the ones keeping many of us sane as we see less and less of two-legged humans. Thus there is a increase of sales and adoptions of the pets. Oblivious to the world outside, these pets are thriving—Well, most pets, asides from the ones seeking some alone time and you’re wondering why your pet hides under the bed.

This pandemic has caused a paradigm shift in our lifestyles. The way we communicate, cook, eat, visit our doctor, adopt technology, travel, fashion, save, spend, educate our children, pray, and play. And yes, society won’t ever go back to being normal, and though I’m scared to the bone, not all hope is lost. We, humans, are exploring and obsessing about the extraterrestrial mystical space where there is no pandemic…yet. Fancy owning a piece of extraterrestrial real estate? Hurry-up, Moon, Mars and now Venus too available at astronomical prices.

Hope. It’s like a drop of honey, a field of tulips blooming in the springtime. It’s a fresh rain, a whispered promise, a cloudless sky, the perfect punctuation mark at the end of a sentence. And it’s the only thing in the world keeping me afloat.

— Tahereh Mafi