EDITORIAL: Don’t go back to ‘normal’

After two months of self-quarantining, social distancing and staying home, things are starting to open up.

Churches will soon start holding meetings again. The dining areas in restaurants are becoming available too. Each week, more temples are opening for living sealings. Slowly, but surely, things are returning to normal.

While things are shifting back to the life we knew before, there is one thing that shouldn’t change from this time of trial;{{:}} one thing that we can’t fall back into.

We at Scroll believe that we shouldn’t go back to our old perspectives. We believe that the lessons and shifts in focus that took place in quarantine must never be forgotten.

All throughout this time of social distancing, people wished and prayed that things would return to ‘normal.’ This was my greatest desire also. Oh, how I wished I could go to a movie or sit down in a restaurant.During quarantine, all I could think about was when it would be over and when life would go back to ‘normal’ or the way they were before.

Isn’t that how it usually goes though? During trials, it is hard to see the good. In the midst of hard times, it is difficult to recognize the lesson being learned. People always say that hindsight is 20/20; can we look back at this time and see the ways it has shaped us to become better?

As life goes back to normal, we should not revert back to what used to be our ‘normal’ attitudes, outlooks or complaints. I don’t want to forget the lessons I learned and revert back to my old ‘normal’ perspective.

The perspective shift I took away from social distancing made me appreciate the beauty of the earth. It should be normal to recognize the beautiful things that surround us.

During this time, it became a lot easier to recognize all the blessings in my life. It should be normal to be grateful; grateful for our health and all that we have.

“In this situation it was really easy to think about everything that was taken from us, like social experiences and learning in the way we were used to,” said Alexis Hoffman, a junior studying public health. “But at the end of the day, that is nothing compared to what some people lost, like their lives, their loved ones or their jobs. We should always be grateful to be healthy and take more time to recognize our blessings in gratitude.”

Dealing with a pandemic and things being canceled as a result of it led many to focus on the things of true value and importance. I want my focus to stay on the things that matter most.

Toward the beginning of this pandemic, my little sister got married. She was able to be sealed in the temple, with only eight other people in attendance. She and her new husband handled the situation with so much grace and gratitude. Instead of being upset that their wedding didn’t go as planned, they were simply grateful to be sealed. Seeing this humbled me and helped me learn the great lesson of what matters most.

Before, it was easy to take attending church for granted. With the pandemic, it was up to each individual to make the choice to do church on Sunday and to stay close to the Spirit in other ways.

In an October 2007 BYU-Idaho devotional titled “Learing through lives trials,” Larry Richman said, “Trials give us opportunities to show the Lord and ourselves that we will be faithful… Spiritual growth can often be achieved more readily by trials and adversity than by comfort and tranquility.”

From going to church to having social gatherings to eating in restaurants, society didn’t recognize all of these blessings until they were taken away.

“We all just experienced the phrase ‘you don’t know what you have until it’s gone,'” Hoffman said.

It should be normal to look at the opportunity to sit and eat in a restaurant or to go to a movie as exciting.

Though we may feel like Anna from Frozen, now being able to socialize for the first time in what seems like forever, we can’t leave the experiences and lessons from quarantine behind us.

“Trials can bless our lives if we learn from them and turn weakness into strength,” Richman said later in his address. “I testify that each of us has the strength to bear each challenge in life because of who we are, who God is, and who we are together.”