Who’s the weird one now? Germophobes and introverts welcome you to our world.

We’ve been living like this for years. Everyone else is supposed to live in OUR worlds now. Welcome!

The tides have changed. We’ve been preparing for this our whole adult lives. Who’s the weird one now?

Think about it …

• Lots of personal space in public … 6 feet is pretty generous. We don’t normally get that much until we’re dead and buried.
• Purell dispensers everywhere you turn.
• Condiments at restaurants in individual packets. No more germy ketchup bottles on the table.
• Self-serve buffets? Be gone with ya! Someone with gloves and a mask will dole out the sandwiches and pizza slices now. Ahhh, heaven on a plate.
• Kids blowing out birthday candles on the otherwise beautiful cake you’re about to eat … a thing of the past.
• Small crowds at sporting events = no more oversized guy behind you with his knees in your back the whole game.
• No more fighting for the armrest between strangers in an airplane or movie theatre (if you even dare to enter Petri dishes like that! Eww).

• Coughing, sneezing, and even breathing heavily in public is now frowned upon.
• Hotels are actually cleaning the drink glasses in-between guest stays now. Could the comforters finally be next?
• Door handles and handrails are no longer flying under the radar as the disgusting scourges on our society that they’ve always been.
• We’re not even allowed to dance at weddings anymore! Could this get any better???

Obviously, the pandemic is not something I’d ever wish on our society. Its effects on our health, our loved ones, our economy and even our political landscape have been devastating. I hope it ends soon and we can all go back to some sense of normalcy.

Can we keep some of these when the pandemic is over?

But maybe… just maybe… some of these precautions we’re taking with the whole germ-spreading thing become more widely accepted. Maybe we keep some of them when the pandemic is all said and done.

At the very least maybe our idiosyncrasies as germ-conscious individuals are looked at differently going forward. They become more socially accepted, if not adopted, let’s say.

“Hmmmm, maybe Jim was on to something all this time,” is what I secretly hope my circle ends up thinking.

Stay safe, everyone.