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The New Normal

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It seems as though this is a phrase we are or will be intimately familiar with as we try to make it through to the other side of these trying times.

‘Normal’ life will, we can only hope, resume soon, but I’m sure I can’t be alone in finding some positives in the midst of this most unforeseen situation we have all found ourselves in, and there are certain parts of my so-called normal life that I will not be in a hurry to go back to.

Starting a new job whilst in lockdown has been somewhat challenging, since four weeks in, I still haven’t met a single one of my colleagues face-to-face. And yet, it’s fine. I am lucky. I am in the very fortunate position of having a job where I can work entirely from home, and since the office is closed I am obliged to. Does it feel a bit weird, embedding myself into a new workplace via conference calls? A bit, yes. Do I miss leaving the house at 7am and returning at 7pm, having spent around 3 hours commuting to the office? Absolutely not. I feel like I have been given the gift of time, and I say again, I am lucky. Lucky to have a job, lucky to be able to do it in the safety of my home, and lucky enough that I now have so many more hours in my day to devote to my second job – my writing. More on that later.

The thing that hurts most about lockdown for so many people is, I’m sure, not being able to see or spend time with loved ones. Not to be able to visit my parents, or meet my siblings, or go for a walk or a coffee with my friends, is the normal that I miss the most. That’s the normal that I’m hoping we will be returned to soon, even if it comes with a slightly different furniture formation and a new set of rules around hugs. But when this normal comes back, for me it won’t be just normal anymore. It will be special. It will be all the little things we took for granted, taking on so much more significance now that we’ve had a taste of what it’s like not to have them.

That first whole-family meet-up is going to be one of the most cherished days of my life. The first time my mum and dad can have all of their children and all their grandchildren in the same room at the same time is going to be a tear-jerker for all of us, where before it could quite conceivably be just a regular Sunday afternoon.

My friend and I are counting down the days until we can sit across from each other in our favourite coffee spot and just chat, the way we used to do on almost a weekly basis. That’s the normal I’m yearning for.

And yet, something else has come into play in 2020 which may mean my life will never be ‘normal’ again. Something that was a pipe dream, in the same way that many of the freedoms we enjoyed before feel so unattainable.

Last year, a book I wrote was published in paperback and online. The joy and pride that I felt at the achievement was off the charts, but in my head I was thinking, ‘If I sell a few books, that’s cool. If it doesn’t work out, well, I can always look back and say I saw my name in print; I held my own book in my hands.’

As at today’s date, astonishingly, four different production companies have enquired on the rights to my book, with the intention of creating a movie or television series based on the story. To say that I am gobsmacked would be a bit of an understatement. One company asking to meet me just about blew my mind. Four at the time of me typing this is beyond that!

I don’t know what to expect from this. It’s a well-known fact that many works are optioned and sadly don’t make it all the way through the process and onto the screen. In a world ravaged by COVID-19 where people’s careers and livelihoods are so uncertain, who knows what will come of this interest, if anything – the industry will need to adapt and recover and that may take time. Safe to say, though, for me, it doesn’t matter. I say that not because I am not fantastically excited about this wonderful news, but because four years ago, when I woke up one morning with an idea in my head for a short story that came from a dream I’d had, the last thing I could have predicted was that I would be sitting here writing that four companies are now interested in putting my words on the big screen. Getting published was a target I never thought I’d hit, and anything beyond that is a huge bonus.

Right now we have to try to figure out what our new normal is going to be, once we are able to make those kinds of decisions for ourselves. Mine is going to be a lot more reflective, that’s for sure.


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