Level Two. Our Normal.

Level Two. Our Normal.

By Michelle Lloyd.

RV, New One and Little Herbert were firm in their friendship, as they had been for quite some years. Knowledgeable on each other’s likes and dislikes, it was good to be in a trio and not ever did each of them feel at odds or left out in the crowd.

New One, Little Herbert and RV, they were not all the same and it was interesting to know how Little Herbert would push away peas or how RV loved them. The differences they had soon became firm foundations upon which they all grew in understanding about each other.

There was not anything that any of them could do that would surprise the other and that was what they truly thought. In recent times, the friendship had been tested and not having had the same social opportunities to be with each other, the three friends had tried to find a way of maintaining what they new as normal. Despite their best efforts though, surprising had been the challenges.

New One and RV had been seeing less and less of Little Herbert of late. It had been harder and harder to get to speak to him outside of the limiting social distancing occasions and in school, well that was even more difficult, because that was when he would keep himself buried inside his books.

Having missed their friend both on screen and in person it was a relief when they finally caught up with him during a school class activity. It was hard for them to fall back into an accepted routine with one another and that was simply because they had spent so much time apart. RV seemed even more reluctant to talk to his friends than he had before and this new normal appeared to be getting everybody down.

Our Normal had been the chosen discussion point and from this everybody was meant to give their impression of what it meant to them. It was useful for the three friends and that was because RV came out and spoke of his feelings of doubt and inadequacy. Always knowing where and how he fitted in had been taken from him and RV felt bad to admit that he had built up a fear over how his friendships would work again. He had all of these questions about what would be the same and what would not, did it even matter if nothing that they shared was really the same anymore?

Once New One and Little Herbert had known of the thoughts running through RV’s mind, they felt a lot happier, because they too had experienced similar potential worry scenarios. RV even admitted to the class that he had tried to avoid social meetings with his two usual closest friends, and all because he was unsure as how to handle a new normal.

It took a little time and adjustment but everybody soon got back into the new and old, there was a lot to learn about expressing concerns and why this was important. In adaption came companionship of a collective kind and before too long RV was truly feeling appreciation for the new normal.