Oh, that’s a painful title. Apologies.

This post is inspired by Julia over at When the Girls Rule. She was feeling philosophical as the date of her first vaccine was approaching and feeling like maybe, just maybe, all THIS was coming to an end.

As I’m writing this, tomorrow is the day of my first vaccine, and there is definitely a feeling of taking a step towards…I don’t know what exactly. I mostly did not mind “quarantine,” as I enjoy need a lot of time to myself, anyway. Quarantine just made it easier. And I’ve enjoyed that for a time there were fewer people out in the world. I’m not like agoraphobic or anything (at all), everything is just easier when there are fewer people. There’s less traffic, there’s more parking, there are shorter lines, there aren’t people interrupting your view of things. It’s just nicer. And I’m grateful for having been able to experience that for a short time. It’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.

But things are moving more towards normal with each day and pretty soon Covid and 2020 will just be a weird “ooh, remember when….” memory.

But as Julia pointed out, a significant event like this can be used as an opportunity to assess, think, grow. She shared some questions with her readers, and with her permission, I’m sharing them here with you. I’d love to hear how you’re all feeling as you’re moving away from Covid Life a bit.

HOW DO I WANT TO EMERGE FROM THIS?

I want to make more opportunities for myself to do things, go places, learn more. I intend to make full use of the fact that The World is Open for Business again (you know, when it is) and go all the places and do all the things. Going and doing feel like luxuries after the past year…luxuries I will not take for granted again.

HOW DO I WANT TO ENGAGE WITH THE WORLD AGAIN?

For me, quarantine was the respite from people/the world that I feel like I have needed for my entire life. After having some time away from THEM, I feel a little easier about rejoining the world. I have actually been seeking people out more, reaching out to old friends, picking up the phone more (if you know me in person, you know the miracle that THAT is).

So for me, the question isn’t so much “how do I want to engage with the world AGAIN,” as how do I want to engage with it period. Because engaging with the world has not been my happy place for a very long time, and was usually avoided when possible. So I will continue to give myself permission to Be Alone as needed, even when that means saying “no” to people and invitations…to enable myself to feel more comfortable in doing more things with people.

WHAT DO I WANT TO KEEP FROM THIS TIME AND WHAT AM I HAPPY TO BE DONE WITH?

During quarantine time, while my world was, on the one hand, smaller…on the other hand, it started feeling much larger. For maybe the first time in my life, really, I started looking beyond my own little box (#americanwhitegirl) and really looking at people of other races and from different cultures.

The horrific events that led to this year’s Black Lives Matter movement were eye-opening and I made it a point to learn more about black history and chains-of-events that I had not been aware of before…and start to understand how all of that has resulted in our current culture. I don’t intend to stop learning and trying to understand.

TikTok. Yes, “that silly dance app” has introduced me to many different people, cultures, gender identities, etc. The power of seeing people different than yourself on a daily basis is not to be taken lightly. It normalizes things that before you only “knew existed,” but weren’t seeing them as part of your everyday life. Now I am reading about the violence against Asian people, trouble in Myanmar and Thailand…and trying to learn and understand all the many iterations of gender identity.

I read and listened to more news in the past year than ever in my life, between the virus and the political environment. It has certainly dropped off to an extent, but I don’t think I will ever be buried as deeply under a rock again as I have been for the majority of my life.

I guess the only “what I’m happy to be done with” item is WEARING A MASK. I do it because it’s the right thing to do but MAN do I hate wearing that thing.

HAVE MY PRIORITIES CHANGED – DO SOME THINGS HAVE MORE MEANING AND SOME THINGS LESS?

Hmm. I need to think on this a bit more. I’ll get back to you.

Insert awkward segue into clothing portion of this post here

And along with a fresh start after a year of Covid, some new colors can bring a fresh start to your wardrobe.

Oh wow, that’s bad. Forgive me. I’m feeling awkward today and just can’t do it any better than that.

A LILAC SWEATER! One of the springtime colors I’ve been craving…and such a nice addition to a palette of darker winter colors. Lilac is like “gentle purple” to me. Purple Light.

While I’m wearing it here with black skinnies and flats, I will also wear it with white jeans, light-wash denim, and if I can ever find myself a pair of “washed black” (which is not the same as grey) jeans, I think that would be a great combo. And one of my quests for this year is TROUSERS. I would love this color over grey wide-legged trousers with chunky white sneakers.

The v-neck makes it so versatile as it can be worn alone, over a tee, turtleneck, or collared shirt.

What new colors are you craving for spring?

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