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Monday, April 19, 2021
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The Daily Mississippian
  • News
    UM vaccinates its student workers, employees

    MSDH reports 157 new COVID-19 cases, no deaths

    State Senate finalizes alcohol delivery bill

    Mental Health Week spreads suicide prevention awareness on campus

    Alumni Association hosts discussion on social media impact

    Alumni Association hosts discussion on social media impact

    New Miss clothing brand seeks to change university’s perception

    New Miss clothing brand seeks to change university’s perception

    A talk with the chancellor: Reflecting on Boyce’s relationship with Ole Miss, his consulting money and his future at UM

  • Sports

    Ole Miss drops series to Mississippi State

    Track and field look forward to Tom Jones Classic

    Column: Baseball can’t miss taking on Mississippi State

    Ole Miss baseball wins midweek matchup against Austin Peay

    Softball prepares for weekend series versus Texas A&M

    Ole Miss soccer’s Ramsey Davis earns SEC Freshman of the Week

  • Arts & Culture

    Gallery: Food Truck Festival draws hundreds to the Grove

    How Will Cook transformed his art gallery during the pandemic

    Local band plays for late keyboard player

    Local band plays for late keyboard player

    ‘Thank God for the time’: the story of Brother Thomas’s quarantine album

    ‘Thank God for the time’: the story of Brother Thomas’s quarantine album

  • Opinion

    Opinion: A farewell from a cynical editor

    Opinion: MLB is wrong to move the All-Star game out of Atlanta

    Opinion: Where the pandemic leaves the current freshman class

    Opinion: What UM should learn from Lil Nas X

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  • News
    UM vaccinates its student workers, employees

    MSDH reports 157 new COVID-19 cases, no deaths

    State Senate finalizes alcohol delivery bill

    Mental Health Week spreads suicide prevention awareness on campus

    Alumni Association hosts discussion on social media impact

    Alumni Association hosts discussion on social media impact

    New Miss clothing brand seeks to change university’s perception

    New Miss clothing brand seeks to change university’s perception

    A talk with the chancellor: Reflecting on Boyce’s relationship with Ole Miss, his consulting money and his future at UM

  • Sports

    Ole Miss drops series to Mississippi State

    Track and field look forward to Tom Jones Classic

    Column: Baseball can’t miss taking on Mississippi State

    Ole Miss baseball wins midweek matchup against Austin Peay

    Softball prepares for weekend series versus Texas A&M

    Ole Miss soccer’s Ramsey Davis earns SEC Freshman of the Week

  • Arts & Culture

    Gallery: Food Truck Festival draws hundreds to the Grove

    How Will Cook transformed his art gallery during the pandemic

    Local band plays for late keyboard player

    Local band plays for late keyboard player

    ‘Thank God for the time’: the story of Brother Thomas’s quarantine album

    ‘Thank God for the time’: the story of Brother Thomas’s quarantine album

  • Opinion

    Opinion: A farewell from a cynical editor

    Opinion: MLB is wrong to move the All-Star game out of Atlanta

    Opinion: Where the pandemic leaves the current freshman class

    Opinion: What UM should learn from Lil Nas X

  • Print Editions
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Opinion: Comfort is not sustainable in an extended crisis

Londyn LorenzbyLondyn Lorenz
March 24, 2021
3 min read

As we lurch further into 2021, many of us — if not all of us — are finding it hard to move forward. While the prospects of a next-to-normal summer seem encouraging, pandemic fatigue has set in. Perhaps an extra hour of sunlight and warmer temperatures will combat this fatigue, but as we learned one year ago, sunlight and warmth do not feed the soul by themselves. 

Many of us now have the opportunity to be vaccinated thanks to Mississippi’s expanded vaccination availability, yet it still takes time to schedule appointments and become fully vaccinated. In the meantime, we are forced to seek comfort from our “old reliables” that have gotten us through a year of the pandemic, but is this mentally sustainable?

Just over a year ago, many of us entered an unknown space: fully online classes, Zoom and quarantine. We entered this space with hope, wanting to reinvent ourselves, learn new skills and finally getting to relax from our stressful social schedules. Instead of attending parties or going out to eat, we filled our time watching “Tiger King” or by baking bread — partially because the store was sold out. Once that hope quickly evaporated, many of us relied on our old sources of comfort: our families’ recipes, our favorite shows to binge-watch and our favorite songs. They helped us feel a short-term sense of normalcy, but, now, they have taken on a new role in our lives. 

After watching the standard “COVID-19 Canon” of Netflix shows and semi-permanently dying my hair purple, I reverted back to my favorites: watching Parks and Recreation and listening to 70s Rock, John Mayer and Harry Styles. I hoped it would get me through to the summer when I could finally re-enter society. Spring, summer, fall and winter have, of course, come and gone, and I am still relying on the same media to get me through —except for Parks and Recreation after NBC stole it from me. The media that once gave me comfort now serves as background noise for my descent into detachment; it was once “quirky and cute” to know every line, but now it’s a reminder of my isolation and dependence. 

In what do we, as individuals, have left to find comfort? Maybe some of us find comfort in a seemingly promising future, but we have been burned by that promise before. Hopefully, the pandemic will pass as vaccinations increase and we gain herd immunity, and society can regain a sense of normalcy. Even so, can we regain a sense of comfort in our favorite songs, movies and hobbies? 

Physical health is, of course, the main priority in leaving the pandemic behind, but we must consider our post-pandemic mental health. Will we be forced to embrace new remedies because our old comforts leave sour tastes in our mouths? Twenty years from now, will “Golden” by Harry Styles remind me of the “good times in college” like Peter Gabriel and The Clash do for my dad, or will it remind me of the year I spent stuck in my house and the headaches I got from staring at my computer all day?

This is a much smaller issue than the loss of life and ongoing medical issues caused by COVID-19, but it is still something to think about. While the future is as promising as it is intimidating, we have all but lost our safety net of comfort in case things don’t go as hoped, as they have for the last year. This uncertainty of comfort will either be quelled or expanded as we return to in-person classes, return to the Grove and re-enter society.

Londyn Lorenz is the assistant opinion editor majoring in Arabic and international studies from Perryville, Mo..

In Case You Missed It

Ole Miss drops series to Mississippi State

18 hours ago
UM vaccinates its student workers, employees

MSDH reports 157 new COVID-19 cases, no deaths

18 hours ago

State Senate finalizes alcohol delivery bill

18 hours ago

Track and field look forward to Tom Jones Classic

4 days ago

Mental Health Week spreads suicide prevention awareness on campus

4 days ago

Column: Baseball can’t miss taking on Mississippi State

5 days ago

Opinion: Comfort is not sustainable in an extended crisis

Londyn LorenzbyLondyn Lorenz
March 24, 2021
3 min read

As we lurch further into 2021, many of us — if not all of us — are finding it hard to move forward. While the prospects of a next-to-normal summer seem encouraging, pandemic fatigue has set in. Perhaps an extra hour of sunlight and warmer temperatures will combat this fatigue, but as we learned one year ago, sunlight and warmth do not feed the soul by themselves. 

Many of us now have the opportunity to be vaccinated thanks to Mississippi’s expanded vaccination availability, yet it still takes time to schedule appointments and become fully vaccinated. In the meantime, we are forced to seek comfort from our “old reliables” that have gotten us through a year of the pandemic, but is this mentally sustainable?

Just over a year ago, many of us entered an unknown space: fully online classes, Zoom and quarantine. We entered this space with hope, wanting to reinvent ourselves, learn new skills and finally getting to relax from our stressful social schedules. Instead of attending parties or going out to eat, we filled our time watching “Tiger King” or by baking bread — partially because the store was sold out. Once that hope quickly evaporated, many of us relied on our old sources of comfort: our families’ recipes, our favorite shows to binge-watch and our favorite songs. They helped us feel a short-term sense of normalcy, but, now, they have taken on a new role in our lives. 

After watching the standard “COVID-19 Canon” of Netflix shows and semi-permanently dying my hair purple, I reverted back to my favorites: watching Parks and Recreation and listening to 70s Rock, John Mayer and Harry Styles. I hoped it would get me through to the summer when I could finally re-enter society. Spring, summer, fall and winter have, of course, come and gone, and I am still relying on the same media to get me through —except for Parks and Recreation after NBC stole it from me. The media that once gave me comfort now serves as background noise for my descent into detachment; it was once “quirky and cute” to know every line, but now it’s a reminder of my isolation and dependence. 

In what do we, as individuals, have left to find comfort? Maybe some of us find comfort in a seemingly promising future, but we have been burned by that promise before. Hopefully, the pandemic will pass as vaccinations increase and we gain herd immunity, and society can regain a sense of normalcy. Even so, can we regain a sense of comfort in our favorite songs, movies and hobbies? 

Physical health is, of course, the main priority in leaving the pandemic behind, but we must consider our post-pandemic mental health. Will we be forced to embrace new remedies because our old comforts leave sour tastes in our mouths? Twenty years from now, will “Golden” by Harry Styles remind me of the “good times in college” like Peter Gabriel and The Clash do for my dad, or will it remind me of the year I spent stuck in my house and the headaches I got from staring at my computer all day?

This is a much smaller issue than the loss of life and ongoing medical issues caused by COVID-19, but it is still something to think about. While the future is as promising as it is intimidating, we have all but lost our safety net of comfort in case things don’t go as hoped, as they have for the last year. This uncertainty of comfort will either be quelled or expanded as we return to in-person classes, return to the Grove and re-enter society.

Londyn Lorenz is the assistant opinion editor majoring in Arabic and international studies from Perryville, Mo..

In Case You Missed It

Ole Miss drops series to Mississippi State

18 hours ago
UM vaccinates its student workers, employees

MSDH reports 157 new COVID-19 cases, no deaths

18 hours ago

State Senate finalizes alcohol delivery bill

18 hours ago

Track and field look forward to Tom Jones Classic

4 days ago

Mental Health Week spreads suicide prevention awareness on campus

4 days ago

Column: Baseball can’t miss taking on Mississippi State

5 days ago

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