I live in a rural area where there’s very limited public transportation options available. I moved to a nearby college town in order to be within walking distance to work and several other basic necessities such as CVS and the grocery store. It has worked out on some level, but it has also cut me off from other opportunities outside of work and the basics. From the outside, everything looks pretty straightforward. This town has one main road that you can walk straight down to get to about everything.
Once you get out on the sidewalk and start walking though, you run into utility poles in the middle of the sidewalk, steep drop offs in random places, inconsistent sidewalks, and you’re at the mercy of drivers who are in a hurry and won’t slow down for pedestrians. For someone who does not have the “normal” ability to respond to these obstacles, they are much more noticeable. This is really how most thing are in life; you see the nuances once you experience them firsthand.
I moved right before the pandemic hit, so within a few months, everything was shut down and had shifted over to virtual meetings, classes, church services, etc. The irony is that when I lived less than a mile from Aldi, there was no way to get groceries without asking for a ride. Now Instacart delivers from towns about 30 minutes away. My church still offers virtual services in addition to in-person worship, which has been extremely helpful because I have so much more control over my ability to see and hear everything.In this area, life has pretty much resumed pre-pandemic normal with the exceptions I mentioned: Instacart and church services.
I am sad that it took such a tragic event to force society to rethink the way they do things. One of the biggest takeaways is that there is not always one way to communicate, socialize and collaborate. Even in rural areas, there is a lot of room for coming up with creative solutions that don’t require a whole lot of expense.
There are some things that absolutely can’t be done virtually and there’s a lot of value in meeting and socializing in person for sure. I hope that society will keep in mind that getting to the destination may pose a challenge, so offering different methods of experiencing events is especially helpful to those who aren’t able to be as mobile due to transportation constraints.
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