What This New Normal Really Means

The economy has been affected by this “new normal”. People have not been able to go out, businesses and establishments are closed except for those essentials, hospitals have been busy and full.

This COVID 19 pandemic not only hit our country but the whole world. Many things happen, from enhanced community quarantine where all over the Philippines, there is a total lockdown. 

After a few months, the effect of this pandemic has already been experienced. Most of the businesses have chosen to shut down or close due to losses. One of the effects of this, many people lost their job. Some may be able to have a job, but their salary or benefits have been reduced.

It has been a challenging year for all of us because of this new normal.

What This New Normal Really Means

In this new normal, you have to wear your mask outside all the time.

Your employer may ask you to work from home. Your company also has health protocols and guidelines that you have to follow when you go to your office or work site. 

Schools have to consider alternative solutions for the students to still learn even in this new normal. Modular and online classes are the option.

Senior citizens, kids, and young adults are not allowed to go out. Unless they have proper documents or as what we call them Authorized Persons Outside of Residence (APOR).

Air travels and sea travels are prohibited or for some are limited.

Delivery of items and goods takes a longer period of time than usual due to many restricted procedures.

In this new normal, malls and establishments have limited operations and it depends on the services they offer. 

Take every challenge as an opportunity

But as they say, take every challenge as an opportunity. 

A month passed by, people tend to adapt to this new normal. Online businesses boom. 

We start to adapt to the techie world where the meeting is through online and all transactions are just one click away to our gadget.

We realized how the emergency fund is so essential in times like this. And we became resourceful and versatile when it comes to the sourcing of money. All of a sudden, many people learned to budget their money because funds are limited.

We are back to basic, we return to the simple and important things in life to exist. What we need is just food on our table, good health, and a shelter. 

We recognized that we can live without fancy restaurants, just good food prepared at home. A part of it, we learn to discover that we have our inner “chef” in ourselves.

We don’t need luxurious materials, just a healthy body, and mind. We start to take care of ourselves, take vitamins, and do some exercise to make our bodies in good shape and become fit. 

Mother Earth is starting to heal also.

For the first one to two months of lockdown, we noticed how our environment has cleared from the pollution from many vehicles that travel all day long.

The sky became clear. The air became fresher. Animals and birds started to appear, different plants seem to grow undisturbed.

And you realize maybe God has a way of doing things for the betterment of everybody. You just need to look the other way around. You have to trust in Him and His will. 

God never gives us a problem that He thinks we can’t handle. Maybe God is just preparing us for something good. He just wants us to realize that we can’t handle everything on our own. We just have to put our faith in Him.

But faith alone cannot help us overcome this crisis, we have to adapt.

At the end of this journey, we change, we adapt, we survive and we became a better person.

In this new normal, we have to be strong, have faith, and trust in Him.

Stay healthy and safe!