What if we took this transition period that constitutes summer, to think about what has happened in the world over the last year and a half, and about what we are going to learn from it?

Summer constitutes, for the majority of students, a transition period. We move from a study year to another, sometimes from an accommodation to another one, and in Finland, from a winter to another one. Anyway, summer aspires to something new, everything seems possible in summer. It is the period between two periods. What better time to pause and think?

This year, this transition period that constitutes summer is even more marked that it is accompanied by the end of restrictions linked to the Covid crisis. “Back to normal” as they say. 

At the time of writing this, the number of Covid cases is decreasing day after day, and restrictions disappear one by one. Soon, the human ability to habit to a change of situation will make us forget how it was during restrictions periods, and why we got there. It is getting better, and it is certain that we cannot hear the name of this virus anymore, hear about this crisis. So, we go with the flow passively, towards the exit of this strange period, and before long we will almost feel that it was unreal, a blurred and far moment in our life. 

Transition periods are really important; it is there that everything is played out, it is what links each moment to another. We should pay attention to it, otherwise we may not see our own life passing by, we may feel that time is slipping away, and not realize what has happened. This applies both on a daily scale, when we go from one activity to another, and on a larger scale, a longer period of time as is the case here. It is at these moments that we must take the time to pause, to observe what is happening, what we are leaving behind, and where we are going. 

So let’s take the time, this summer, to take a step back from what happened lately and to think on what we will retain from it. 

Because we usually innately tend to become accustomed to situations, we might not realize anymore what is acceptable and what is not. It is so important that we are not passive or unresponsive to what has happened and what is happening, and that we realize the scope and severity of this crisis and of its meaning. 

I encourage everyone to think, personally and collectively, on what this crisis has meant, for ourselves and for the society. What has this crisis revealed about our way of life, from a societal point of view? From an environmental point of view? Political? Demographical? Social? 

What has this crisis revealed about ourselves, our need to socialize, our way of consuming, of interacting with others?

Everyone should take advantage of this summer, period of transition in the whole world, to ask themselves these questions. What do we want to keep from this crisis? Do we really want to get back to “normal”? Knowing that it is in fact exactly this one that led us to this situation…

This period must be an opportunity to reflect and reinvent ourselves, in order to lead us to a new social, economic, climatic and environmental policy that takes into account the common good much more strongly. Something has to change after that. 

More precisely, we should think about what we want to keep from this year. 

First, on the personal side, which good habits that we developed during the crisis should we keep? 

Second, on the societal side, what ideas and innovations that emerged during the crisis would be good to keep afterwards? It is primordial to ask ourselves these questions to influence future policy decisions. 

We must also not forget what this crisis has taught us. By this I mean, from an individual point of view, the importance of our social relationships, of our freedoms and rights that we took in the past for granted, and how fragile everything is, how everything can change, so quickly, for the whole world. 

This realization will allow us, if we don’t forget it, to enjoy more, in the future, all these moments that seemed banal a year and a half ago. It will allow us to measure how precious our freedom is. 

From a societal perspective, this crisis was indicative of many flaws in our society. It speaks volumes about the problems of biodiversity and the environment, about overpopulation, about the fragility of our economic and health system. So, what lessons can we learn from it and how do we respond to them? 

Let’s ask ourselves these questions, really. Let’s not rush to the end of this crisis without asking them, otherwise it will all have been meaningless. Especially as young people, we are the ones who are going to pay the price of this crisis, so we might as well learn from it and retain something of this experience for our future. Let’s take the time, even if we naturally want to move forward without looking back, to realize what happened and to retain something of it; everyone is free to retain what he wants, but it is essential to at least think about it. I invite you to think.

Charlotte Ehrmann