When this is over

When this is over

I’m going to run outside and I’m not gonna stop until I reach the center of our town

I’m going to stay outside until it’s dinner time and my mom forces me to come home

It’s like I’m ten again

And the streets and the trees are my home

And the bed I sleep in is a foreign object

I’m going to enjoy the company of my friends like never before

I’m even going to love waking up for class

I will appreciate everything

Everything.

I will take into account every single second of the day

All 86,400 of them

That’s a lot

But I will truly appreciate all of them

I will

I truly will

No longer are the days I will tell my friends I’m just gonna stay home today

Everyday I will be outside

I will not be alone in this.

Apparently everyone around me feels the same way

and will also be partaking in this thing called life

I also heard that 7 billion other people are going to do it too

We are going to appreciate more

Live everyday as it comes

Never complain again

We will swim and fish

and sing and pray

We will ride our bikes that sat rusty in our garage for who knows how many years until the sun goes down and we will frown because we want to stay

We will laugh

And laugh again

At what? No one really knows it just feels good to laugh again.

We are actually enjoying life this time around

What fun!

And the best part is this time it’s going to last

Forever. And. Ever.

Ever. And. Ever.

Forever.

Until our last breathe

We will play outside

And enjoy life for what it is

I promise. We all do. Because in this moment we mean it.

Or

That lasts at best eight weeks

At best we enjoy life for eight weeks

And after that it’s back

The dread

The dread of going to school

or Work or whatever else it is

The dread of following through with plans you now regret making

Slowly enough we start to go back

But not because we want to

Because we have to get back to our lives (that’s what we will tell ourselves)

We can’t stay outside all hours of the day. It’s impossible. We were childish for even thinking that.

It will be slow at first

We will stay outside only for half the day as opposed to the full day

But then

Winter is now here

An excuse to stay inside!

It’s too cold outside to go play

We are all secretly happy

We just don’t want to admit it to everyone else

But deep down we all sigh a breath of relief

“Oh just wait until the spring we will be back outside”

And then spring comes

“My allergies are bad I can’t stay outside to long”

Summers here!

But it’s hot.

It’s the hottest summer we have had since 1966

To hot to go outside

We have to stay in the air conditioned comfort of our houses

Drowning out the life we so desperately wanted this time last year with a cold refreshing ice tea and catching up on our favorite tv show

Nothing is better than a cold ice tea in summer. Right?

Memories of this time will slowly escape our memory.

We won’t remember the feelings of anxiety, as we prayed our loved ones would be safe. We won’t remember the absolute boredom we felt after binging every show on Netflix until there was nothing left.

Hobbies we started to pass the time have already been discarded with last year’s trash.

“What a crazy time that was”, we will say

“So glad that’s over”

“Remember how bored we were! Having to stay inside, it was awful.”

Little do we realize we are doing the same thing we were forced to do one year ago

Except it’s different now

Our choice.So it’s better.Because in quarantine we were forced to stay at home.But now is much different.So much different.

We aren’t staying home now because we are forced to. We are staying home because it’s hot.

Much too hot to go outside.

That’s the reason.

The only reason.

Appreciation will last a short while, and soon enough dread will creep back into our hearts and into our homes.

And soon enough we are back. To before this all started. Exactly the same.

Only now we know the ending of Tiger King.