Finding a new normal

The most frightening and uncertain event that Carol LaRegina lived through before the current COVID-19 global pandemic was the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant’s partial meltdown in March, 1979. But the situation came under control and all threats were cleared within three days. Children continued going to school and adults continued going to work. But the current times are much different. With a virus with high contagion rates and no certain treatment or cure wreaking havoc on communities and medical facilities across the world, non-essential businesses have been closed, school sessions held remotely, and large gatherings have been banned for months in Pennsylvania.

As schools and universities transitioned to online learning, so has Carol’s job. Carol, 57, of Harrisburg, works as the assistant director of the Master of Public Health program within Penn State’s College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Days that were normally filled from nine to five with graduate student appointments and faculty meetings are now spent at the kitchen table, holding meetings on Zoom. She hopes all her students are managing alright and understands how disappointing it is for her graduating class to miss out on a ceremony.

But as someone who teaches about public health, she’s a heavy advocate for social distancing and proper hygiene during this time. When Carol sees on FaceBook any friends of hers who are still out interacting with others, she shakes her head in disappointment, “Why don’t people get it, they shouldn’t be around each other. Maybe they don’t care if they get sick but they’re putting other people in danger.”

With her day to day life slowed down, Carol has extra time to invest into her family and her pastimes. The mother of two daughters, age 20 and 17, and two dogs, she goes on long walks every other day at a local park or the orchard behind her home with her girls. After dinner, when the laptop is closed for the day Carol goes to work on her puzzles. She has completed over ten 1,000 piece puzzles in the past six weeks at home. On the weekends she and her husband Jim can be found out in their yard working in their vegetable garden and flower beds.

Times are certainly different, but for Carol they’re not unenjoyable. The “normal” of everyday life has changed in her household and although she is eager for the pandemic to be behind everyone, she says hopefully, “Maybe I’ll get to still work from home this summer.”