taking everything for granted.
By: Paul Yeghouchian
Tags: Travel Writing, Travel, Coronavirus, Wanderlust, Covid 19

What’s that saying? You don’t know what you have until it’s gone?

The events of early 2020 sure made this real.

I remember December 31st, 2019, the last day of the decade. I was thinking, wishing, and hoping that the coming year will be different, fresh, and inspiring. As the clock struck midnight, I had hopes that with the changing of the year, my life would also change. I had visions of volunteering overseas, to put some purpose to my travels that was somehow lacking before. I needed to do something BIG.

The year started off with some horrifying news events from around the world. Plane crashes, Kobe Bryant’s death, and keep in mind we were still in January. At the same time, I watched distant news reports about this virus called the“Coronavirus” and how it was slowly shutting down life in Wuhan, China. I thought that would be terrible to live through and fooled myself that it couldn’t happen here.

These news reports started to come more frequently with cases soaring in Italy and eventually coming to North America. This is when everything changed.

At the beginning, people didn’t know how to react. Mixed messages from all levels of government added to the confusion. Keep in mind, this is the week before March Break, where a lot of people had travel plans. People were not discouraged to cancel their travel plans so people left the country. It was only a few days later that the Canadian government announced to avoid non essential travel outside the country.

Added confusion, anxiety, and panic ensued.

People became hoarders at the grocery stores, snatching up all the hand sanitizer and toilet paper they could find. Tension filled the air no matter where you went in the city.

Also, daily life was slowly shutting down in the city. Movie theatres, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, life was becoming different and distant. The end goal was to create as much “social distancing” as possible to help stop the spread of the virus among people. Some followed the rules, some didn’t.

Then came the travel restrictions. Countries around the world were shutting their borders to non citizens, airlines cancelling flights, people stranded, the world is in utter chaos.

I couldn’t help but think that at this time last year I was planning trips to the UK and Italy. Now both are in lockdown.

Watching the news everyday is grim and depressing. Nobody knows when this will be over and when the world will return to some sort of balance. We took it for granted — the simple act of leaving our home and our borders.

This global event has made it clear that travel is a privilege, not a right.You never know when your privilege will end.

Social distancing is the opposite of travel. We travel to bridge the gap between countries, people, cultures. We travel to share experiences. We travel to connect ourselves not distance ourselves. We travel to relate and to wonder, not to be afraid and anxious.

How will you live after this is over? Will you be more bullish on your travel plans? Will you prioritize your dream trip? Will you take more risks? Or will the world return to its routines, unable to change its ways. I think the world will be a different place, in what ways, I can’t say, but I know that borders will open and people will smile, welcoming you to bridge that social distance.