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Adapting to the New Normal
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A “If there's anything I've learned in the past couple of years, it's to always be ready to adapt to any given situation. And find the positives in even the most inconvenient and frustrating of times.”
fter two years of living through a worldwide pandemic, society is edging closer to returning to a new normal. Mask mandates are moving from required to highly recommended, and large social events and live events are back on. Finally, our new normal is at our fingertips! But adapting to change, even wanted ones, can be scary, especially in times of crisis when the rules change day-to-day, hour-by-hour, and minute-by-minute. Inconsistency makes it challenging to be optimistic about the future. So, let's do it anyway! Let's be excited about 2022. Because if there's anything I've learned in the past couple of years, it's to always be ready to adapt to any given situation. And find the positives in even the most inconvenient and frustrating of times. For example, when schools closed, many parents had to learn how to use Zoom and Google classroom or transform a kitchen table into a learning center for their kids. Asking for help from grandparents, tias and tios, friends, and other trusted loved ones was a must for this full-time working mom. Who also happened to be pregnant with her third child at the time. COVID taught us so much in many areas of life. Being thankful for the little things, like the flexibility to work remotely and sit beside my girls as they attended virtual school or having reliable WiFi and access to taken-for-granted necessities (like healthcare, food, fresh air!). But it really showed me how to get comfortable in uncomfortable situations and pivot to the new reality. The industry has shown its capability to do the same. When shows got canceled and live events stood at a halt, event planners shifted to online and virtual platforms. In-person showrooms moved to virtual experiences as companies relied on VR software to help customers see their designed rooms without leaving their houses. And interior designers, manufacturers, and architects had to adapt to customers' new wants and needs as they transformed rooms into serene spaces. Companies helped homeowners make their home a forever home, elevating rooms with hardware, pops of color, and decorative surfaces. They shifted to producing and recommending more oversized pulls and handles, which were suddenly sought-after elements as older adults moved in with their grown children. Or finding the ideal surfaces and panel-based products to convert rooms from an ordinary bedroom or storage area to double as a home office, gym, child's workspace, or all three. The industry proved it knows how to pivot, adapt to change, and thrive! Now, as we move into this new era of the global crisis, I'm optimistic that so many of us are ready to take on whatever this new stage throws our way. I'm confident we can adapt to anything put before us. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again.
Ambrosia Brody, Managing Editor AMBROSIA BRODY | MANAGING EDITOR | SURFACE & PANEL MAGAZINE ABRODY@526MEDIAGROUP.COM | 714-486-2735
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