I just happened to be listening to my online Anthropology of Contagion and Infectious Disease class when the university announced that our return to campus on Feb. 7 was definite. Ironically, the seminar was analyzing “pandemic logic” from an anthropological perspective. 

Pandemic logic explores what happens when non-human life spills into human spaces and people’s reactions to those interferences. Reactions such as quarantine, social distancing and masking are all easy indicators of pandemic logic, but other factors that we’ve seen throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic expand on this concept. 

Our use of technology also plays a role in pandemic logic. By emphasizing technology in settings including virtual learning and curbside-pickup and delivery, we have made it work, but this can only last so long. 

I can see the growth that I have made in the span of the pandemic so far and the way it has shaped me not only as a student, but as myself. It has pushed me to be a people-person, be comfortable with discomfort, make adjustments and problem solve. 

I’m sure that many can say the same. In the time that we were required to stay home, people rediscovered their passions and themselves, sexualities and relationships. There’s been a surge of popular movements and trends, all spearheaded by the power of social media and general technology. 

For me, the use of technology for school has had many downsides. It is easy to be distracted in my own space and forget the weight that my class holds over the rest of my life when I am not physically attending classes on campus. 

To start 2022, I’ve already had to adjust to the online classes and now will have to readjust to in-person lectures. It is just another blemish in my academic year that I will fixate on and distract me from other aspects of my life. 

In my medical anthropology class, a classmate brought up the fact that pandemics don’t make room for the natural condition — for the things that make us feel normal, comfortable and human.

So our drive to return to in-person classes — despite the predictions of rising cases in our province and new variants making appearance every few months — makes sense. 

However, there are other parts of the human condition that I feel we are dismissing. Yes, having the full university experience of spending time with friends or attending in-person lectures is important at this time of our life, but I can’t help but have little faith in our return. 

To me, it’s disorienting. 

We hear all the time about adjusting to the “new normal,” but we keep changing what that “normal” is, establishing it and then end up taking it back. 

And I’m dizzy. Having to juggle a changing routine on top of an academic load is a new aspect of pandemic logic. 

In the past, it was simple — quarantining, social distancing and masking. The formula back to a “new normal” was clear and direct. 

Now, the formula is growing and the variables are changing. 

But unlike the past, the outcomes are not as clear. The impacts these sudden transitions make in our lives will come with time and there is no knowing how these returns to the “new normal” will ultimately pan out. 

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This op-ed was written by a University of Saskatchewan undergraduate student and reflects the views and opinions of the writer. If you would like to write a reply, please email opinions@thesheaf.com. Rayyann Haque is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying Archeology and Anthropology, and is a Staff Writer at The Sheaf Publishing Society.

Graphic: Jaymie Stachyruk | Graphics Editor