No matter how Type A we are, we can never be prepared for everything. It’s impossible.
In this pandemic year, I don’t know about you, but my Type A tendencies got a real battering. In the face of a deadly virus the world had never seen before, I had to come to terms with some cold, hard facts of this weird, new life.
Isolation. Masks. Loneliness. Zoom-everything. It freaked me out for the first six months. You too?
The realization that even if I followed all protocols to a “T” I might get the virus anyway. I believed the scientists, of course. But since they are Type A’s too, I could see their uneasiness under the surface.
This was a year where some chose to believe that facts are not facts. They are merely opinions. I’m not one of those. I chose to wear the mask and everything else. My first dose was painlessly put in my left arm last week. I’m feeling normal, but I’m still masked up. One shot is not immunity unless it’s the J&J and I couldn’t wait for one of those to become available.
Getting on with life is a high priority, but I am forever changed by this worldwide catastrophe. The lesson is that I cannot control anything.
Not a pandemic virus, or what others believe about it. I may still get sick in the future from variants the World doesn’t even know exist yet. But the experts warn us, they will be arriving. To our shores or others or maybe everywhere at once. Who the heck knows? No one. Not a living soul.
That is not a fact of life any of us are accustomed to. And never will be. To Fauci or Not to Fauci is not the question.
Pre-pandemic, this Type A lived in the bubble of her own making. The one where if she did everything she felt was right AND did it perfectly (like that straight-A student I prided myself as. You too?) surely she would survive anything. That bubble was popped by the “Guess What That’s Not True At All” hammer of Covid.
Not that I’m quitting all tendencies of my behavior. I will still be prepared for earthquakes and power outages and completely stocked with all sizes of batteries in case the electricity goes out and I cannot charge the re-usable kind. I will always be overly stocked with dog food for Polo, my terrier mix. (He has a sensitive stomach and gets food from a vet.) I mean I’m not going totally rogue.
There is comfort in knowing that I am not the only one who is like this. The numerous toilet paper shortages of the past year prove me right. I admit I am adding adequate toilet paper supply to the above list of “Still Will Do’s.” But accept that the Type A I was is gone forever. And I accept life going forward as a Type B-er, or maybe, if I slip a bit, a Type A Minus-er. Perhaps in the future, there will be something referred to as Type C, for Covid. And it’ll mean the person who lives forever the way we have the past year. That seems extreme, but very possible as well.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have spotted a slightly askew piece of art on my office wall and that is bugging me. As for the rest of you, just go on organizing your closet according to color, or finding the latest antibacterial soap. You never know, right?
We all go through major life transitions when relationships end… Through this website, I will share my thoughts as I walk the path of “New-Self” discovery. It doesn’t matter which side of 50 you are on. The real question is, Are you ready to live life? To forge a Path of Your Own Making (For a change!)? Then stop dwelling over the What-Might-Have-Beens and join me. Share your thoughts here, comment on mine, and let’s do this together!