Post Pandemic Reflections
June 2022 - is it premature to call it a post-pandemic time?
I spent much of the past 2 years at home with my parents in the Philippines. What an amazing opportunity to shelter in place with them and be able to help out with the simple daily errands such as grocery shopping that had become more complicated by COVID-19 virus. I worked remotely for the most time and meant that I logged in to work at 2PM Manila time to support our offices in Europe and then log on for an hour to have dinner with my parents and then log on again for New York. It was a killer schedule at first but something I came to appreciate. In a way it helped me live two lives where I got to spend the mornings with my parents - maybe take short trips to Tagaytay or to lunch when the restrictions were low and they were allowed to go out. It was also good to be home when all of us at home tested positive and that I could be there to help out with the medical needs of my mom who got hit the worst.
Being back in New York though brings a new perspective to how work is done. Seriously now - we need to come to the office to create an atmosphere of 'team building'? That some meetings require closer collaborations... seriously? Lately anyways, the reason to come to HQ had been to see friends, catch up over coffee and lunch.
When I left New York in July 2020 the city was in the midst of chaos with the confrontations with NYPD, major store break ins and then the protests related to the death of George Floyd. And weirdly, also never understood, the nightly firecrackers that exploded on the streets everywhere. It was also a time when there wasn't enough information about coronavirus and it was mostly fear that triggered every new finding about it. People wore gloves and masks, doused their Amazon boxes with alcohol or Lysol and preferred not to leave their apartments. The gyms were closed so I had to work out by running an imaginary oval from my apartment to Central Park/Fifth Avenue and then back to Second Avenue. When tents for a triage was set up on Central Park right across Mount Sinai Hospital, it scared me so I avoided Fifth Avenue and ended my oval at Madison Avenue. And then a container was set up on Second Avenue in front of Metropolitan Hospital to 'keep' orange body bags since the morgues around the city had not been able to cope with the number of people dying from the illness. By June I had given up on my daily run. It had become too sad to go out and see what was going on around me.
On the positive side though, because people and cars did not fill the streets and very few public transport moved around, the musical tweeting and chirping and squawking were ever the loudest. It was joyful, like a mad and beautiful take over by birds of a city usually filled with people noise.
Few friends remained in New York City. Those that made a decision quickly when the UN closed its offices and requested all staff to do 'alternate working arrangements' were able to take the last flights back to their countries. I hesitated - should I return to Manila (I just came back from Christmas vacation two months earlier) or to Europe? But before I had a chance to think it over flights were cancelled, planes grounded and borders were closed.
When flights for Manila resumed in June there was still the scare factor of : is it safe to fly? Is it safe to sit inside a plane where the air is circulated around the cabins for 16 hours?
But it seemed to have become more and more obvious that the situation wasn't going to get resolved quickly. I had initially set up a 'temporary' standing desk in my apartment and now had purchased a real bar height table for a real workstation at home. I had established my routine, including making coffee at home in that hardly used Nespresso machine, cooking lunch in between morning meetings and doing yoga and breathing exercises when I could.
I had created for myself in fact a different life from March to July 2020 while I stayed in New York and then again evolved this once again when I transferred to Manila.
Life after returning to New York in March 2022 has been different as well. Less of the ad hoc night outs, twice a week in the office but not 9am to 5pm either. Less effort in re-establishing that social base and more of finding time to enjoy what I want to enjoy of the city and usually with my daughter Nicole who'd train to the city whenever she could to join me.
It also sets to perspective long term plans. I never thought I'd be able to keep away from NY for very long but I did and did not miss it. Returning to a new New York post pandemic - it is different. Some of my friends have requested and been approved to continue working remotely so they gave up their apartments in New York and moved to California. The places at the UN where we used to hang out after work for drinks are now closed after 5PM (hahaha!).
Is it time to move to a new phase of life? Retirement seem too damning. A reinvention? A new life. I have now been living in New York for 20 years. longer than I had planned when I first came here. I have this city and this country change so much. The world has changed so much.
When I was young I used to say I'd like to live in at least 4 continents in my lifetime. Why 4? One more than half 😅. Maybe it is time to put that plan to action. There is still so much to learn in the world. I am just starting on my watercolor and painting journey. I still do my photography. I try to write when I can, still preferring long hand because those can still outlive whatever is digital.
It is a great time to be alive. Surviving a pandemic in a lifetime.
M
New York