As everyone knows, we are living a pandemic caused by COVID-19, a disease caused by the infection by a coronavirus.
With the pandemic, we lost many habits, but we also gained others. We stopped kissing and hugging people, partying and having face-to-face meetings or having someone over. We started wearing masks everywhere, sanitizing our hands all the time and we invented new ways to greet people that, now, need to be two meters or six feet apart from us. I have chosen one word and two gestures that I don´t want to lose after the pandemic.
COVID-19 is a word that I don´t want to lose from my vocabulary. Although it would be great if the virus disappeared and we started living our lives normally again, I think that word reminds us of what nature is capable of and its power to change. Even if the virus had been created by Humanity, we could, obviously, see the dimension it reached. We also became a little germophobic and I think that it's important, because we are improving our hygiene and that´s good for our health.
We also started touching elbows, feet or wrists to greet people and I think these are really cool new ways to do it, because, preferring those gestures, we are protecting us and others and that is really important nowadays.
Finally, we stopped kissing and hugging. This pandemic made me realize that I should be grateful and I shouldn´t take things for granted, so I reserve those missing gestures to the ones I really love and care about.
Please remember to stay safe!
Mafalda Gonçalves, 10ºA
26/set/2020