With a year and a half now almost gone since the first case of Covid-19 was found in Malta, plunging the country into a world of semi-lockdowns and restrictive measures, an exceptionally speedy vaccination drive has now left us looking forward to a return to normality.

The biggest question though is: what will “normality” look like from now on?

A recent survey carried out by Vincent Marmara, with an economic analysis by erstwhile Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, found amongst other things that "less than half of respondents believe that their life will return to a pre-Covid-19 normal."

The root cause of this was traced to a variety of reasons such as the emergence of any new variants of Covid-19 and how they might interact with the vaccine – but regardless it does point toward a feeling of uncertainty about what the future will look like.

The pandemic has of course changed the way we live our lives for such a prolonged period now that certain things which previously would have been seen as exceptional are now taken for granted.

This makes us wonder: should we be returning to a pre-Covid-19 normal in the first place?  Or are there certain things which we should adapt to something of a new and better ‘normal’?

The first and most obvious thing which comes to mind is the concept of teleworking.  If the pandemic has proven anything, it is that there are more ways than punching in at the office and sitting at your desk for the whole day to carry out your work.

Many office-based jobs, it has been proven, can easily be done from outside the office – something which ultimately reduces worker commuting, which in turns reduces our carbon footprint.

A new normal should seek to strike a balance between teleworking and office-working: one naturally cannot spend every day from now onwards working from home – the social side of the workplace and the effect of having a level of social interaction is important for people’s mental wellbeing as much as anything else – but at the same time, working from home should not be discarded to the history books as some sort of pandemic-quirk.

Perhaps however, the biggest changes to what we consider normal should come in our own personal lives.

Sitting at home for months left many people with a chance for personal reflection.  Many took to new hobbies: be it personal fitness indoors, be it going for walks just to get out of the house and keep moving, be it investing in some sort of new recreational skill, be it even adopting a pet or becoming an amateur gardener.

The pandemic has presented many with an opportunity for introspection and to really understand themselves.

We tend to discuss subjects like this ‘new normal’ from a grandiose, policy perspective.  But many times it’s the little things in life which can make all the difference – and hopefully all those who found that new, little thing, which makes their life better can make it a part of their own new normal – even as the pre-pandemic hustle and bustle returns.