UNITED STATES─It is hard to believe that the month of May is about to be over and the month of June is about to kickoff. I swear it feels like this pandemic has made time move faster now than ever before. Well, this weekend kicks off the official start of summer in my opinion with Memorial Day Weekend, but it will be vastly different than in years past. Will it be warm in various parts of the country? Yes, will you be able to grill outdoors? Yes. Will you be able to have large gatherings? No.
Yes, social distancing is still in effect people, which means hosting festivities with the entire family or a ton of friends is just not a safe thing to do right now. At first I thought people would still celebrate the holiday, but I no longer suspect that to be the case. Yes, people will still get outdoors, but it feels like the more people I talk to Memorial Day will be just like any ole day, except BBQ will be the staple come time for food.
Of course plenty of us would like to be in the company of our entire family, but we have relatives who have health issues are more susceptible to being exposed or contracting COVID-19 than say you. Would you really risk the life of your loved one to have a gathering, to enjoy some food and outdoor fun? Of course, anyone with a reasonable mind would not do anything stupid to risk their own life or the ones they love. I really am tired of hearing people say they are going to social distance and follow guidelines of staying at least 6 feet from others, but you don’t see it.
I mean the parks are loaded with people who are not social distancing. The beaches let’s not even touch that topic because not only is it a fluke, and it seems the more we are locked down people are becoming more dismissive of not only protecting their health, but the health of those closet to them. Holidays are changing; it first started with Easter, where people were FORCED to stay at home. I mean March was slightly bad, but April was downright unbelievable. I don’t recall at time where I was forced to stay in the house so long without having the opportunity to get out. We’re now a mere week away from the month of May ending, and June ushering end and there is very little end in sight. I mean Memorial Day will come and go, and then we’ll turn around and the Fourth of July is likely to fall within the same realm of Memorial Day.
Limited interaction with family, limited time outdoors and limited celebrations. I guess we could do a drive-thru celebration for family, where people show up to your house to grab a plate of food and say hello as they continue to trek along. If there is one company benefiting most off of the pandemic it is grocery stores, where people are still purchasing food.
Not necessarily to celebrate a big event, but to give the perception that while things are vastly different, they are attempting to maintain some level of normalcy, with everything that is taking place, nothing is normal right now. We want to feel like things are getting better and to some degree they are, but at the same time the notion of celebrating a holiday is like an afterthought with all the chaos that is taking place in our orbit right now. It matters, but it does not matter to the degree that we think, when people’s lives hang in the balance. It’s a holiday, and what’s worse, we’re not really honoring the day for the reason we should, so many just look at it as a time to BBQ and be out doors, not remembering those who lost their lives fighting in battle people.
Written By Zoe Mitchell
