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I have often thought of the positive outcome of lower air traffic. Carbon emissions were way down. Wildlife started returning. That showed how much humans CAN make a difference. Hard to implement that kind a change though.

I personally think I am more aware of how I spend my time. Am I making good use of the life that could be taken away at any moment?

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Yes! That was quite an amazing thing, the wildlife.

Pleased to hear you're thinking about how you spend your time. It's not easy to remember to do that when life gets in the way

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Great essay, Charlie! I agree, I think we’ve probably lost the “let’s make our lives simpler” gusto, but I do believe the people who wanted it were given the opportunity they needed to change their lives (in one way or another) for the better.

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Adam! Great to hear from you, I've been following your walking expedition - looks incredible (and hard work...)

I agree. People who wanted to make that change definitely made it.

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Love reading your thoughts in this. Our lives were not affected really. We are introverts, kept seeing the same people, we do not travel a lot anyway, husband can't work from home since he is a mechanic... But my children did have a long summer holiday!

I remember thinking it was interesting seeing many people being 'forced' to live the way we do, many people enjoying the absence of the many obligations... But Norway was relatively mild anyways.

It has been a year since the last regulations were removed and I was a little shocked to see how people acted like they wanted to compensate and make up for the time they could not shop, party or travel.... Especially if you know that half of the Norwegian population has less than 3 months of living expenses on the bankaccount. But that is another story....

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I was in Finland last year and my friend was telling me a lot of Finnish people absolutely loved the lockdowns!

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This reminds me how lucky we are that we discovered nomading before Covid. Because many of the changes Covid introduced into the lives of so many others were changes that we'd already made. In fact, we were fortunate enough that except for locking us down for seven months in Puerto Vallarta (by our own choice, not because the government there did lockdowns) our life pretty much went on as normal.

We frequently say more people could live the way we are if only they knew about the option. Is that actually true? I honestly don't know...

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I think it probably is true, but it's complex to unpick why people live how they live. We started nomading right in the middle - we sold our business in Oct 2020 and went straight to Spain where we ended up for 6 months. I wish we'd been able to nomad before then but alas, it wasn't to be.

7 months in Puerto Vallarta eh! Would you recommend it? It's been on my list to visit for a long time

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I would recommend it and I'm surprised to hear myself say that because I'm generally not a fan of tourist resort towns. But Puerto Vallarta has done a pretty good balancing act of being a great place for tourists but still retaining some sense of being genuinely Mexican.

This is the complete opposite of Los Cabos, MX, which is my idea of hell. Once a village that the government decided to turn into a resort location and it feels exactly like that. Huge malls, chain restaurants, gringos everywhere, and unfortunate Mexicans trying to make a living off of often drunk Americans.

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Oof no no no. That sounds awful. I've never been to Mexico but really want to go, but for Mexico itself, not for American enclaves! I might as well just go to a British version of that like Benidorm in Spain.

Good to hear! It's on the list for later this year

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Unfortunately, there are sooooooo many Americans in Mexico -- oh, the irony! -- that it's pretty difficult to escape that entirely unless you're going to places that are way out of the way and maybe not that interesting.

Consider Mexico City which I had no idea was such a world class city until we lived there for three months right before the pandemic. Certain neighborhoods are now apparently overrun with nomads, etc, but it's still very easy to find authentic Mexican culture -- and food! Oh, the food! -- in Mexico City.

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One positive outcome (for me) from the pandemic has been it made even an introvert like me want to go out and meet people more often.*

I used to be very reticent to talk to people but the pandemic showed me that even I can't be locked up in my room all the time.

Here's to hoping that we're truly post-pandemic and not in-between-pandemics!

* At this point, I'd like to mention these Thai designers - Ease Around - who came up with a line of stickers and t-shirts expressing this very sentiment: https://www.instagram.com/p/CX3sekkPWMw/?hl=en

(Not an affiliate, just a fan!)

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Good point. I think a lot of introverts felt like that!

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