How have you adjusted your expectations of what’s “normal” during the pandemic?

Alex El Sehamy, MD, SUNY Downstate

I’m relying more on myself instead of others to maintain my happiness and well-being. Self-reliance feels good, but I can’t believe it took a pandemic for me to get here.

Jeffrey Millstein, MD, Penn Medicine

I’ve accepted that things will never be quite as they were.

Carolyn Fahm, PhD

The new “normal” is that the screen is my gathering place for the world beyond my walls. Without the connection it provides, I would feel lost.

Carl Streed Jr., MD, Boston Medical Center

While nothing has felt “normal” since I entered medical training, I don’t feel there will be a return to whatever was “normal” before February 2020 in the U.S.. I agree with @millstej: eliminate expectations.

Mariah Robertson, MD, Johns Hopkins

My old normal was broken. So I’m grateful to be waking up and adjusting my approach and the lens through which I view everything both personally and professionally.

Allison Chrestensen, MD

The pandemic has caused me to question what I thought of as “normal” before and how misaligned those thoughts were with the reality others experience. Expecting to find exactly what I want at the grocery store is an example. I focus more now on what I actually need.

Aline Charabaty, MD, Johns Hopkins

I’ve reassessed what’s truly “normal.” Did the kids really need all these activities? Is F2F always better than televisit? Why did it take me 14 years to discover a wonderful trail by my house?

I’m definitely more excited to reshape my normal than to “go back to normal.”

Ashlyn McRae, med student, Johns Hopkins

I learned it’s okay and important to create space and time to process emotions about expectations that can no longer be met. Creating this space helped me process an indefinitely postponed wedding.

Megan Gerber, MD, MPH

It amazes me how easily I’ve adjusted to not seeing people’s faces except on screens. I think pre-pandemic me would have found that very “abnormal.”

Colleen Christmas, MD, Johns Hopkins

I’ve been thinking about how much of day-to-day life is constructed. What used to feel natural, just something that happens through a day, the pandemic has made realize were made up by someone as expectations, and to conform or not is a choice. I hope to move with more intention.