If the pandemic ended right now, what would you do?

It’s the moment we’ve been dreaming of for most of 2020: an end to the anxiety, the uncertainty, the loneliness, the heartbreak and flat boredom that comes with the pandemic.

This has been a year to forget, let’s admit it. But with a vaccine on the horizon, many experts are quietly hopeful the world could be returning to some sense of normalcy by the summer of 2021.

For now, we need to keep social distancing and wearing a mask in public. Even if we’re fit and healthy, spreading the coronavirus could end up killing people who are not. But everyone needs a little hope, a little dream of the future.

So if the pandemic ended right now, what would you do?

Lisa Lucas, the executive director of the National Book Foundation. in the US, posed this question to her followers on Twitter.

“If the pandemic completely and totally surprise ended today at 3pm, what would you be doing by 6?” she asked.

If the pandemic completely and totally surprise ended today at 3pm, what would you be doing by 6?

— Lisa Lucas (@likaluca) November 30, 2020

The people of Twitter did not disappoint in their responses.

Hugging featured prominently, whether it was family members, friends or just strangers in the street.

Hugging

— Diedrich Bader (@bader_diedrich) November 30, 2020

Hugging my dad at the assistant living facility where he lives. Then I am sure he’d make me take him to the barbershop. And then Texas Roadhouse.

— Eugene Scott (@Eugene_Scott) November 30, 2020

All. The. Hugs. I'd literally walk around town hugging every damned person and making cookies for everyone and sharing sips of whatever I was drinking. Then drive down to my boyfriend's (who I haven't seen in person since August maybe?)

— Jessamyn West (@jessamyn) November 30, 2020

Hugging people in the street. Enjoying a movie in a theater. Booking a trip to Scotland.

— Kristin Baver 💙 #TheAcolyte (@KristinBaver) December 1, 2020

There were proud parents wanting to show off their progeny, or just show them around town.

https://twitter.com/lizzieohreally/status/1333483814585331713

At least 4 of my friends have had babies during the pandemic, I would be hanging out with a baby

— Pearl (@pearlrhein) November 30, 2020

https://twitter.com/lynchmegan/status/1333493982710681602

Trips to the cinema and live music were also very popular.

I'd be in a movie theater. Any movie, don't care what language, what genre, or if I've seen it before. I'm in a theater with a bag of popcorn for a quadruple feature https://t.co/P6fNSkh5XV

— Dr. Jason Johnson (@DrJasonJohnson) December 1, 2020

First a movie, then a small-club concert where I might accidentally end up making out with a stranger.

— Kristi Coulter (@KristiCCoulter) November 30, 2020

Maybe just a nice dinner away from the kids?

Immediately drop the kids off at my parents' place and off to a local Italian place for a modest dinner and single glass of wine w/ my husband and maybe some friends.

— Sarah Marian Seltzer (@sarahmseltzer) November 30, 2020

https://twitter.com/NickChilds/status/1333545973558226944

So what would you do if the pandemic ended right now? We want to hear about it. Let us know on editorial@bigissue.com or on Twitter @bigissue.

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