This article first appeared in Capital, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on April 4, 2022 - April 10, 2022

On April 1, Malaysia entered a new phase and transitioned to the endemic phase of Covid-19, where we all can pretty much return to an almost-normal life after two years of living with the pandemic.

Of course, this is a great relief, as the economy can fire up again, and our healthcare system and frontliners who have been working tirelessly these past two years can, hopefully, get much-needed rest.

On a personal note, there are certain things that I really am not going to miss.

First, I am not going to miss videos of the exercise buffs. As a fairly inactive person, I have watched countless videos of my friends and acquaintances on social media doing burpees, pushups, crunches and very painful-looking yoga positions, while blithely reminding the rest of us about the social injustice of closed gyms and how they are confined to doing their workouts at home. And as if Instagram stories weren’t enough, they also had TikTok videos so you could keep up with their workouts.

Second, I am not going to miss the Groundhog Day experience. If you are familiar with the 1993 movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray, you will know that I am referring to a situation in which you have to relive the events of the same day over and over again, and that’s pretty much how it felt during the Movement Control Order and ensuing lockdowns — it was basically eat, sleep, work and repeat. On a daily basis. Working from home the past two years, I realised that my neighbour’s kid knows how to play only one song on the piano, and that’s the theme song of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. And remember how Murray’s character woke up to Sonny and Cher’s hit song I Got You Babe on a daily basis? For me, it was that tune with no Johnny Depp in sight. Every single morning.

Third, I am not going to miss the WhatsApp Conspiracy Theory Network. It was bad enough that, at the beginning of the lockdowns, grocery shopping was like playing American football with, not Tom Brady, but angry aunties hogging enough loaves of Gardenia bread and packets of Maggie noodles to feed, well, a football team, for lack of a better analogy. But I also had to contend with family and Taman WhatsApp groups sharing information about how the virus had mutated into every strain possible and was now airborne, so much so that if you stepped out of your house, you were already 99.9% sure to contract Covid-19.

Not to worry, though; there were miraculous cures in Rassam, herbal soup, goji berries and Clorox — though former US president Donald Trump might have played a part in that last one.

I am also not going to miss the never-ending memes. The list has been endless since the pandemic broke out, really exemplifying how much free time people have, but let me give you a recent example. Actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock at the Oscar ceremony last Monday in what us 1990s kids can identify as probably the “one little fight in which [his] mom got scared and said [he] had to move in with [his] aunty and uncle in Bel-Air”.

Already, I have seen 1,000 iterations of the same slap in various memes, though I have to hand it to my favourite frozen yoghurt chain llaollao for using the slapping meme to hit back at copycat frozen yoghurt chains.

To be fair, it has not been all doom and gloom, as the pandemic gave us a wakeup call to not take our health for granted. Movement restrictions and fear of going out also provided us with a chance to spend more time with family.

So, here’s to a smooth transition to endemicity and a turnaround in the economy, and a much-needed return to sanity and normalcy in our lives.

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