Stage 1 Reopening.

This past Friday, Ontario entered into its initial stage of reopening. After two months of lockdown and over a year of quarantine, the landscape slowly reawakens from its slumber. At sundown, the uptown was buzzing with activity and patios brimming with visitors. For a brief moment, a sense of Deja Vu surged within me as I stood disoriented amidst the lively street.

Without a surprise, the opportunity to visit places again brought many delight. Like the rest of the population, I have felt somewhat stagnant and disoriented over the past year. The limitation of physical geography felt like a metaphor for the imperceptible, as I grew increasingly claustrophobic within the perimeter of activity that confined me.

I remember thinking out loud while walking with someone through a familiar park lane,
"When was the last time you felt inspired and reinvigorated from the physical space around you?", I asked.

On the day of the reopening, I spontaneously found myself in the city of Toronto, meandering through bustling streets while rushing by countless passengers. In contrast to the suburban quietude, the towering architectures and the variety of individuals passing through them reawakened something in me.

A little while back, I recall moving out from home and into my current student apartment at the beginning of May. The few kilometers of distance transported me to an entirely different part of town. Upon embarking on a new term, I cherished the renewed momentum gathered from this change in environment.

The second most recent time occurred in March, when lockdown was temporarily lifted and in-person classes became restored for a brief while. Sitting in the spacious lecture hall for the first time since university began, I suddenly felt an almost euphoric sense of joy, touched by this glimpse of a campus lifestyle that I have daydreamed about since high school.

Rewinding even further back. In the previous October, I remember feeling vividly inspired by the suburban landscape upon returning to the Canadian city-town after numerous flight cancellations. I stared mesmerized into the cerulean sky, half a world away from the technicolored cityscapes that I have been immersed in for the past year.

In some ways, a shift in my physical geography often echoed an inhalation of fresh air for my soul. Time and time again, I am reshaped by an dimension of possibilities outside of the routines and perspectives I have grown accustomed to. Despite how many things seemed to have remained stationary, I could nevertheless recall quite an array of times from my recent past when that same sense of reinvigoration has washed over me.

A couple of weeks ago on a particularly humid day, I walked along that same path when I had thought aloud. Countless cotton-like clouds adorned the spacious canvas above and the leaves gently glistened underneath the daylight. Individuals scattered across the landscape, headed towards various directions and engrossed in their own worlds. Animals pranced around and laughter-filled chatters were occasionally heard. Everything appeared vivid and enlivened. A sense of renewal pulsed within me even as I treaded along my typical route. My feet were anchored upon the ground underneath me, yet my head was in the cloud, mesmerized and elsewhere.

Upon reopening, I am looking forward to physically showing up to spaces again. For many, the interruption of quarantine resembled a discontinuity in how one expected life to unfold. In subtle and irreversible ways, we have changed and grown from who we were prior to the lockdown. As the world gradually reopens, I attempt to re-anchor myself upon where I currently stand, in light of the miscellaneous changes that have occurred.

I am grateful for the shifting of things in this season, for the inhalation of new hopes and potentiality for new beginnings. There have been new strength gathered, as well as hopes that I am attempting to rediscover. Looking ahead, I will nevertheless reencounter all the strength I need along the way, tracing my way back to precisely where I need to arrive at.