Everything Feels Bigger
I went from a lifetime of rarely crying at the theater to a year of crying almost every time I’m at the theater. The latest was a concert performance of Pippin.
It was the play I was most looking forward to seeing in 2020, but the performance was moved due to the pandemic. Then it was moved again due to the pandemic. Then it was transferred into a concert performance and canceled again. Then rescheduled and canceled for our performance because half the cast had COVID. Then recast with our tickets on a new night. But when we finally heard the first bars of music begin on our fifth try seeing the show, I burst into tears. It just felt so huge to be there. To finally be there. After waiting for so long.
They made it a concert-plus performance, incorporating some of the choreography that we would have seen if they had gotten to hold the first performance over two years ago. It was one of my top five nights of theater ever. Would it have been so remarkable if I hadn’t waited so long? Who knows.
But that’s kind of the point: The pandemic has made everything feel so much bigger once the thing you’ve been waiting for finally happens.
It has super-sized the emotions around seeing people or doing something commonplace again for the first time in a long time. It makes me feel like every mundane experience draws all of my emotions to the surface. And I’m not sure how long this phenomenon will last.
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Yes, absolutely. I’m a professor at a small college, and on Saturday, we had “make up” graduations for the classes of 2020 and 2021. 75% of alums from each class came back with their families for the celebration, and I was amazed by how moving the ceremonies were. Pre-pandemic, I was feeling very jaded about Commencement. But now I have a renewed appreciation for these communal rituals.
Yes! I cried at my kids’ school fun run. This was back in October and was the first normal school thing they had been a part of in over a year and a half. The weird normalcy of it all (outside so no masks even), how happy every single kid was to be outside on a beautiful day, running with friends – it felt so big and overwhelming.