In no more than a year, everything will change. It would sound like a threat but take this as advice from your surviving pandemic self. It’s time for you to consider the peril of what yet to come.

Currently, you are still finishing your semester as normal as ever. Waking up in the early of the morning and doing the go-to school routine. The hardest problem you may have at this point is the breeze and shivering cold of the water as you take a bath. It’s sad that you may never imagine losing such a reason for your cold feeling because of drought and shortage. I wish you could be thriftier.

On your way to the school and back, the noise and polluted air of the road are your worst nightmare. Stain and odor that may establish your schoolmates’ impression. The dirt and dust that would ruin your hairstyle you worked for at least half an hour and disgust your face you perfectly caring with all the best products. It’s so blue to tell you that these things would not bother you anymore, nor anyone from our age. You may never imagine in your time, that even the road would go empty as the world stops. Inhaling dirt and dust would be more horrible than ever, and the introduction of a thing called “facemask” is no longer limited to disguising celebrities but to the rest of the world. I wish you could be more careful and focus on what matters most.

As you enter the school, the greatest risk you can encounter is when you bump into your teacher you missed to attend class or entering your classroom with your math assignment undone. Worst, there will be a recitation with the most terror teacher of the campus. It’s despairing to give you the idea that such problems of yours would be nothing compared to having no access to education at all, if not, disadvantaged. I know, studying is hard, but transitioning with this hardship is much harder, keeping only for one promise, temporary adjustment. I wish that you will be more flexible and considerate whenever the circumstances tell you.

As you stay in your house during the weekends, you may even think such house chores assigned to you are a reason to struggle. Washing the dishes would make it difficult for you to rest after every meal. Sweeping would struggle your nose from dust and spiderwebs. Watering your plants would struggle your skin with mud and water. It’s ironically gloomy, that these burdens eventually will save you from boredom and loss of sanity as time will come where going out is both a risk and a guilt. I hope you can enjoy the small things.

Lastly, fighting within will be more crucial for the next years of your story, thus I advise you to gather your courage to deal with it. True friends and right friendship would be great armor for this battle. Taking care of yourself, in a holistic way, will be as essential as ever. I wish you to love yourself, truly.

This is the first time you will hear someone saying “new normal.” It is new, but never normal, especially if you could not hold off from the norm you grew with. As time will fly, you will surely accept it, step by step, inch by inch, somehow.

If I could really send this to you, and you could really read this, shall I expect something different, perhaps? Goodluck to the both of us!