Drake has a series of songs titled 9AM In Dallas, 5AM in Toronto, etc.

Instead of coming up with traditional names for those songs, he likely just wanted to give the listener an idea of where he was at the time of writing...

I’m up early in San Diego, I’m visiting. I’m used to east coast time, so it really feels like 8AM.

The people I’m staying with won’t be up for a couple of hours, so it’s nice to sit here and get my writing done for the day.

Yesterday, we were talking about COVID and how crazy things were just 8 months ago. Back in March in San Diego, they wouldn’t even allow you to go to the beach. Cops were patrolling the beach and kicking people off.

There was so much fear back then. Everyone (people, businesses, governments) were forced to make decisions and take such drastic measures.

I was one of those people who was very filled with fear. “Everyone should lockdown, do nothing for months.”

But nowadays, I actually feel the opposite. I feel that people must move on. 

Not really for economic reasons, but personal reasons. For mental health.

I know a lot of people that “moved home with their parents” during COVID. On paper, moving home sounds like a great idea (save money, spend time with family, etc), but the reality was much worse.

With everyone I talked to, it was not a great experience after 1 or 2 months.

When you move home, you’ll likely lose your social life. Meaning no friends, no parties, no bars & restaurants, no dating, no job/coworkers, etc.

If you think about it, that’s very unhealthy.

I think that maybe we took being social for granted. Humans have a biological need to be social. To meet people, spend time together, laugh together, work together, love together. You take that away, and your brain gets fucked up.

Most people I know that moved home realized this and realized they needed to “get back to real life”.

Many people are making it back to New York City now. They don’t have to move back (still remote) but they are choosing to.

As the people trickle back into New York City and pick up where they left off, they actually seem a bit socially awkward! I think it’s because they spent so much time in isolation! (NYT has a piece on this)

The issue now is that people are ready to get back to normal lives, but they are afraid to announce it.

I know so many people that go on vacation but won’t post anything on social media because travel is still a bit taboo. I also met a girl who told me she doesn’t like it when people post on social media about their wedding because “of all that is going on in America”.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens next. COVID will still go on, but people will (silently) pick their lives back up, I think. I wonder how that will impact social media, and mental health, and politics.