Just think back to 20 months ago...

It's March/April of 2020. You're sitting in your house. Nothing to do. Nowhere to go. Everything on earth is seemingly closed. All your favorite bars, restaurants, sports arenas, concert halls.... all of them, shut down tight. Stores weren't faring much better. But very slowly, things sort of came back to life over the next year or so.

All of us sort of assumed this whole thing would be over by the end of 2020, but here we are, about to roll into 2022, and the case count is higher than ever. So if the virus is waaaay worse now than it was then, why aren't we suffering all the same lockdown procedures as before? Well, the answer is pretty simple...

The vaccine has been the big game-changer.

It's true. According to WABI, the state is basically saying because so many Mainers have gotten the vaccine, that Gov. Mills is saying that we will not be returning to any of the previous mandates that had to be in place before. There was literally zero info on the virus before, and no way to treat it.

With new knowledge, and Mainers setting a pace for vaccinations to be envied by the rest of the country, we won't be reliving any of the lockdowns and closings that 2020 presented us with. It's not the "thumb's up" we're all kind of praying for. But it's not nothing. It's a small glimmer of things truly getting back to normal.

I can't imagine there will ever be one moment where it's just all ok again. It'll probably come pretty slowly. Maybe even a couple more years. But we will get through the whole thing. but at least for now, we can come and go almost everywhere we please. And for the first time in a long time, I'm inclined to say... That ain't too bad.

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