By Wendi Rank

As COVID ran through the world as the bulls run through Spain, my husband and I made what our teenagers assured us was a vicious decision.

We skipped joining our community pool.

Our summer, normally overrun by hours at the pool, early morning swim team drills, and – I kid you not – four-hour swim meets, now stretched before us, empty.

My husband suggested we fill that time with hikes and trips to his family cabin. On its surface, this suggestion sounded nice. But hikes are hot and buggy. So is the cabin.

What the cabin lacks in Wi-Fi it makes up for in mice. Don’t get me started. We’ll be here all day if I start listing my complaints about the cabin.

Thus committed, we spent many days in the great outdoors. Our children drifted from my husband to me and back as we hiked like they were on invisible figure-8 tracks. We discovered our son loves birds. Our daughter wants to invent the machine to bottle memories, so you can revisit them at will.

These revelations are far from our usual summers, where the extent of our interactions are groans about the cold, seven AM water at swim team practice, and requests for snack bar money.

Amy S. Rosenberg, writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer, says restrictions have forced us to find new adventures we never would have before considered.

But we’re also missing out. Destinations beyond our own borders are hamstrung by the virus. Some people may not have years to wait out virus-imposed restrictions. Economic disparities are highlighted across the board with COVID. Travel is no exception.

While some areas are suffering from lack of tourism, others could suffer from a surge of tourists that is unprecedented. Some regular travelers have expressed concern about roaming the globe in the future. If the virus returns, could they be trapped overseas?

Until we can move again, it will be the little things where we find pleasure. My little thing is the mouse poop I found in my bunk at the cabin.

Imagine how awful it would have been to miss out on that.

Find Rosenberg’s full column here.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wendi Rank is a Willow Grove native with a graduate degree from LaSalle University. She has worked as a school nurse, a registered nurse and nurse practitioner in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She has previously written for the journal Nursing.

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