5 Tips for Acclimating to a Post-COVID World

Anshu A via Unsplash

It’s exciting to see the continued rise in vaccination rates and the community starting to come together safely across the United States and right here in Minnesota. But even as things return more and more to “normal,” there’s likely to be some residual reluctance to go spend time with loved ones or go to bars, restaurants, and other local establishments. According to the American Psychological Association, around 50 percent of people surveyed in March 2021 were hesitant to go back to normal social situations. I am one of them. With a new baby, I’m still a little hesitant (even though my wife and I are fully vaccinated) to go to a restaurant due to the risk carrying something home and spreading it to others. I’m sure everyone has their own unique reasons.

My wife and I have come up with some things to do while taking care of our new son to help slowly transition to postpandemic life. Based on that experience, here are a few suggestions for balancing your time with friends with at-home routines to help slowly acclimate back into your own comfort levels with socializing in person.

1. Have an Outdoor Happy Hour

My wife and I recently enjoyed a few beers at Arbeiter Brewing Company, located on 30th and Minnehaha Parkway in South Minneapolis. It was safe, the brewery has a great outdoor patio, and it felt good to be in the company of other people again. I sampled the Lil Dipper hazy pale ale, and it was a refreshing way to spend an hour or so just chatting with my wife while our in-laws watched our new baby. It felt nice to be somewhat normal, even for a few hours. Ultimately, this wasn’t too overwhelming, and it didn’t make us worry too much that we were socializing or around too many people to risk carrying something back home.

Enjoying a beer at Arbeiter Brewery in South Minneapolis with my wife.

2. Spend Time with a Few Close, Vaccinated Friends

During the pandemic, our social circles became a bit smaller as we tried to limit contact and curb the spread of the virus. Now that we are fully vaccinated, it’s been nice to interact with a few friends who are also fully vaccinated. But we’re taking it slow. We’re inviting just a few friends here and there so that we can slowly work up to having large group hangouts again. We’ve finally been able to play a board game in person again, have a beer together in our backyard, and (dare I say it?) have them in the house again.

3. Buy Online and Pick Up from Your Local Stores

I’m still a bit hesitant to visit our local stores to shop with my young son, so I’m sticking to buying online and picking up in person. At the moment, I’m considering picking up some vintage action figures from Heroic Goods and Games and would like to plan out my first visit to Hot Comics and Collectibles in Richfield.

4. Balance Social Interactions with Streaming Content

Over the winter, I started to collect some “best of” film lists, starting with AFI’s top 100 movies of all time and spending some time with IMDb’s top movies. This led to my first viewings of The Graduate, Whiplash, and Joker. Even though it didn’t make either of these lists, I also introduced my wife to Arrival, which for me would be an honorable mention. I’ve recently gotten into some new nerdy streaming content as well, like The Bad Batch on Disney+ and Invincible on Amazon Prime, and I’m planning to start Jupiter’s Legacy and Shadow and Bone on Netflix once my son starts to fully sleep through the night.

5. Dive into a New Game

My gaming has fallen a little bit by the wayside, but when I have some time, I’m planning to dive into a couple of new PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch games. A few that I highly recommend and that might be a good way to spend some side time while slowly acclimating to society are Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Ghosts of Tsushima (I’m almost done with this one!), the Super Mario 3D collection, and Cyberpunk 2077. A few other I’m hoping to dive into over the next several months are The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, and Resident Evil Village. (Skyward Sword is the only Zelda game I haven’t finished, so I do really look forward to finally conquering that game.)

I’m not one to do a ton of online gaming, but this is absolutely something you can do while you reacclimate to in-person events. When I do game online, I tend to do it through Halo, Overwatch, or FIFA, but there are tons of great games to play online with friends, like the always popular Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Madden.

Marvel

I know that during this time, a lot of us our still hesitant to go out and fully get back into the world. Some of the above is what I’m doing to help me feel a little comfortable getting myself back. I’m a big advocate for having a little patience with yourself—it’s going to take most of us a bit of time to feel normal again in front of our friends and loved ones. In the meantime, take it slow, catch up on some content, and enjoy some brews. We’ll all get there one step at a time.