19 Things That Will Never be the Same After the Pandemic

1. Hopefully your boss will finally admit that all his dumb meetings actually could have been emails all along.

2. As a nursing assistant... I will be forever oh so hesitant to get near someone (particularly the elderly who like to cough directly at you) without my eye-shield and mask.

3. The phrase "avoid it like the plague" - turns out people don't do that.

4. Time spent with my kids. Pre-pandemic I would leave the house 5 days a week at 6:15am to commute to the office, usually before anyone else in my house is awake. And I'd get home most evenings just in time to put them to bed. I'll never go back to that. The past 8 months I've actually seen my boys grow up in front of my eyes and I get lots of quality time with them every day, even with work from home. I know now what i was missing.

5. I will not take hugs for granted.

6. A massive amount of people now know they can work from home.

7. Anytime you're sick, you'll wear a mask. I'm amazed at all the times I flew before when I had a cold, and didn't wear a mask.

8. Office life. My company has already announced that once we are allowed to go back, we'd only be going once or twice a week. It seems many realized how feasible working from home is.

9. My definition of “personal space.”

10. Health care workers going to work without a mask on. Definitely took for granted seeing my co workers smiling faces during my long shifts

11. My marriage. My wife and I had to work from home together (separate jobs) from March until September when she had to go back to the office. I am still working from home. During this time, we became increasingly closer. I have heard so many stories of marital problems being caused by Covid. I literally miss my wife everyday she has to go to work. I meet her at the door like a f**king puppy. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. Sometimes forced proximity does too.

12. As a current college student, I am in favor of keeping recorded lectures. It's way more helpful than just having notes or slides.

13. Working in an office, particularly in Japan. I live in Japan. Going to the office and spending all day here is a deep cultural tradition. So many companies here, even in the early COVID days, flat out publicly said "Hah, no, we will NEVER be doing that 'work from home' thing, sorry. That's laughably naïve." Then, the country issued a "Declaration of National Urgency" (not an actual Emergency, as that would entitle the govt to be actually accountable to the livelihoods of the people, just a very strong arm public stance and shaming businesses into following suit). And those traditional Japanese businesses saw what happened to their bottom lines when they no longer had to pay for electricity, heating/AC, cleaning, office equipment and maintenance, subsidized travel expenses to/from work, soft items like coffee and snacks, etc... and so many of them now are singing the praises of a "sensible work from home policy" and planning for even long-term work-from-home options.

14. Most of the mom and pop stores in my town are gone forever. Some of these stores I grew up with, the nickle arcade, the tiny French bakery my aunt took us to when we got good grades, the only ramen shop open after 10PM, my favorite donut shop, the fancy British tea shop I never had a good date in but many London Fogs that were utterly perfect, the only dim sum place, the handmade mochi and tea shop, the only cigar shop in town to get fancy cigars... I lament the death of all these tiny businesses I took for granted. I always thought they'd be around. Now my community is left with just brand named box stores, no more originality and flavor. Just closed skyrise buildings surrounded by a garishly lit Denny's, Olive Garden, and Target.

15. Blowing out the candles on your birthday cake

16. Shopping will continue to be mostly online and malls will likely die out faster than they were already going to.

17. Obliviousness to how many things I touched between hand washings

18. My waistline

19. Drinking fountains.