Zara coat (similar)
H&M sweater
Mavi jeans (c/o)
Aldo boots
Chanel handbag
Zara sunglasses (similar)
Anthropologie hair clips (similar)
Linjer ring (c/o) (similar)
Aurate New York ring (c/o)
Location: The Wrigley Building – Chicago, Illinois
It’s often said that if you can’t travel, reading is the best way to see the world. As an avid reader, I think it’s also the best way to experience moments in history that you didn’t have the chance to live through. If you wonder what it was like to live in London during the blitz, you need only pick up a book to find out.
Someday, people will write books about the time we are living in now. It’s surreal to consider that future generations will wonder what it was like to live through a pandemic and question what social distancing really meant; to know that they will turn to literature to find out, just as I have turned to literature to understand what it was like to live through the years of the Spanish flu.
It’s hard to believe that we took these photos less than a month ago. Particularly knowing that the pandemic was already well under way at that point, just going by a different name. But I’m beginning to understand that moments of historical significance are not something you can prepare for: they happen. And you find out if you’re ready (and how you’ll react) when they arrive.
The freedom we had to impulisively hop on a plane in February feels far away now. (We’re fortunate, unlike many people, that we had no further travel plans made for this year – we would likely be forced to cancel them otherwise.) All of the decisions we made to walk through crowds with impunity, all of the crowded tourist attractions we visited, suddenly seem ill-considered and imprudent.
Looking back, I realise how wonderful it is to be able to go through life being imprudent. So many people who are less healthy than I am never have that luxury.
This too shall pass. Soon enough, all of my pandemic preparedness meetings will be cancelled. The idea of social distancing will become a mere memory. Tourism will flourish again. I’ll probably even get over the habit of washing my hands every time I accidentally touch my face – which is to say, even two minutes, so that they are red and raw as I type this. And the freedom we have to explore, to go outside and enjoy life in the company of crowds of strangers, will feel remarkly sweet for a brief time. But that sweetness, too, will fade. We will take our freedom for granted again, sooner than we think after this pandemic ends.
…and when I realise that, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. These photos are tangible proof of just how lucky I am, and how lucky I will be again.
It truly seems like it was an overnight shift of something far off that we knew about, but weren’t concerned with, to widespread panic and people buying out all the hand sanitizer to try and make a profit off the people considerate enough not to clear the shelves in a store. It is interesting to think, this will someday be a notable part of history, how we handle it matters.