Whenever speaking to my grandparents my grandma always brings up polio and how if we can survive that we can survive anything. The owners of my sleep-away camp (that I work at) speak of in their email how if they can stay open during situations like the Spanish flu and world war two that anything is possible. My parents have never seen anything like this; the worst they have seen is 911 and this tops it. A pandemic we are living in. For grandparents, it is a blast from the past, and for our teenage children all in society, this is new information that will change us forever; similar to the great depression and 911. After these two historical events, nothing was the same. I began to then truly think like this assignment asked, on how will the COVID-19 pandemic affect the way we live forward. Not even asking my parents at lunch this idea came up and my dad said, “this will be the new norm.” When hearing him say that, I started to truly think of what the new norm will actually be. So, I started to research! Reading into the first article I found, ideas of what the new norm will truly come to begin to start to pop out at me. “Almost all public gatherings will be canceled. Hundred of millions of people around the world will be out of work” (Baker, 2020). Let that just sink into your head. We, the average Americans, are very fortunate and lucky because all our life our parents have been able to supply what we need and what we want. Our lives will never be the same. No more hanging out with friends, going out to dinner, hanging out in a small area where everyone is on top of each other. This pandemic will have a huge effect on us humans. Going forward in the chapters that lie ahead for our lives, everything will be different. If you are used to going out every weekend for dinner, that might change due to financial stability. Some people might even say that we are hitting a great depression similar to the pandemic that occurred during world war one. When reading more into the changes this pandemic will bring to the world, Forbes speaks about that “…every sector of the American economy is shrinking…” (Broderick, 2020). The economy of our world as we know of it is going down due to businesses not being open unless they are essential, and due to people fearing to leave their house and getting exposed to COVID-19. The world we know of it will change, more so for the worse. On the financial side of this whole pandemic, after the quarantine and we begin to return to some places reopening businesses might not hire as many people as they have in previous years. Hiring under the usual amount can lead to income issues for people and families or just themselves if they are on their own. Jones from business insider says that “I suspect companies are going to realize they can get by with fewer, which will leave more people out of work than had been beforehand, and that will then increase pressure for something like a universal basic income” (Colarossi, 2020). This implying that businesses are going to have to hire fewer employees due to new regulations that will be put into place. Yes, hiring fewer people will affect the employees because of income and being able to provide necessities for themselves but this is going to be the new way of life. You are not going to be able to fill any spaces to full capacity; instead, it will have to be half capacity and everyone will be sitting every other or every few seats so nobody is on top of each other. Besides looking into the economic aspect of what will happen after this pandemic, there are many other little key factors we can look at. When thinking about our lifestyles, the idea of wearing a mask will now become a wardrobe staple. “Wearing a mask maybe even stranger to us than wearing a Speedo at the beach… It ‘s just not the norm (in the US), so there is judgment, but there is nothing wrong with it” (Staff, 2020). People are going to have to get used to leaving their houses wearing a face mask to help protect themselves from getting exposed to anything. Yes, it will be uncomfortable for people to drive and breathe with a mask on but this is going to be the norm for now on. People will be afraid to live their lives how they used to be prior to the United States, and everywhere, being exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Work Cited

Baker, Peter C. “’We Can’t Go Back to Normal’: How Will Coronavirus Change the World?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 31 Mar. 2020, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/31/how-will-the-world-emerge-from-the-coronavirus-crisis.

Broderick, Ryan. “After The Coronavirus Passes, Your World Will Not Go Back To Normal.” BuzzFeed News, BuzzFeed News, 4 Apr. 2020, http://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/after-coronavirus-it-will-not-go-back-to-normal.

Colarossi, Natalie. “10 Ways the Coronavirus Pandemic Could Change American Life as We Know It.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 26 Mar. 2020, http://www.businessinsider.com/how-covid19-could-change-american-life-as-we-know-it-2020-3.Staff, Vox. “The Pandemic Will Transform Us. Here’s How.” Vox, Vox, 22 Apr. 2020, http://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2020/4/16/21213635/coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-legacy-quarantine-state-of-mind-frugality.