NastyGal sweater
Mavi jeans (c/o)
Aldo boots
Chanel handbag
Mango sunglasses
Linjer rings (c/o) (similar)
Maris Pearl Co. earrings (similar)
Location: The Manitoba Legislature – Winnipeg, Manitoba
Sometimes, I wonder how I’ll feel, looking back on these pandemic years. There have been so many moments of hope – swiftly followed by news to dash that hope. So often, I’ve thought that it will just be another day, another week, only to watch those weeks turn into months… and then an entire year. Most of that hope has been nothing but an illusion I’ve created for myself, a coping mechanism to help me stay sane amid constant uncertainty. But this week, I finally have a reason to feel real hope that we may eventually get back to something like normal.
It’s not a secret that the pace of the vaccine rollout in Canada has been sluggish at best, and can most often be accurately described as glacial. We remain immensely privileged and will still have access to vaccines far sooner than many people worldwide – I can acknowledge that while still pointing out that we could have done much better. It’s been both exciting and immensely frustrating to watch American and British friends get first, then second, doses while not knowing when I could hope to get even one. The imposition of yet another lockdown only compounded those feelings.
…what is there to hope for, when all you really know is that you’re stuck at home for the next three weeks at a minimum, but probably longer?
Not much. Not much at all.
(I’m not even asking for much, at this point. I know holidays are still off the table. But I want to be able to enjoy a glass of wine with a friend on my balcony. I want to be able to enjoy the occasional dinner with my immediate family. And more than anything, I want to be able to go out occasionally, so that I don’t feel like I’m living the same day over and over again.)
And then, somehow miraculously, our local government seemed to come alive to the idea that vaccines are the only solution and that distribution needs to happen now. Eligibility for vaccination, which for months crawled along in descending order, decreasing by two years at a time, dropped by twenty years in a matter of days. No one expected it. Least of all me – I’d resigned myself to a wasted 2021. But it happened. I found out early, signed up enthusiastically and got my first dose within just two days.
I was lucky. The stars aligned for my appointment to happen so quickly. There are still many people waiting for their own appointments. And so much more work to do before we can back to anything like true normalcy. But I’m hopeful. Which is something I haven’t been able to say honestly for a very long time.
I have honestly been feeling much more hopeful since I got me first dose. Things were dragging here as well and I’d resigned myself to likely not being able to get a dose until June or June when, all of a sudden and with lightning speed, they announced additional, expanded age brackets could book – so I got in immediately and am now eagerly awaiting my second dose (which I know will not come for months, but still). I am starting to feel hopeful that, by late in the summer, I might just be fully vaxxed and so will most of my friends, so perhaps we can enjoy end of summer and the early fall actually together. And it looks like they’re currently doing clinical testing on children ages 6 months to 11 years so I’m very hopeful I can get Eleanor vaccinated in the not too distant future, which makes me endlessly happy and hopeful!
Courtney ~ Sartorial Sidelines