How are You Doing...Now?

 This article was written by our own County Extension Director, Christy Strickland for the Robesonian.

A little over a year ago, I wrote an article entitled “How are you Doing?”  It seems a little strange to still need to ask the same question. So much has changed recently regarding mask wearing and the mandates regarding crowd size and other things related to gatherings, but so many things are still difficult to navigate. I think it is still safe to say we are all experiencing things we have never faced before. We have learned a lot about ourselves and how we handle stress during COVID-19.

Our children and grandchildren have been able to return to in-person school, but it has been a challenge for everyone. Groups are beginning to have more face-to-face meetings and most churches are now meeting in person. As some of the mandates are lifted and we are able to be without a mask for outside events, we are beginning to look at how we can navigate indoor gatherings without being masked. There is a sense of freedom, but I will be honest, that creates a little stress too.

The COVID-19 vaccine is now available to almost everyone ages 12 and up, and is contributing to our ability to begin to “open up” more opportunities for gathering together in safe numbers. Being back together feels really good. In a way, we are forging a new frontier to our new normal and it feels very liberating. But let’s not deceive ourselves, there is more work to be done. Many of us have received our COVID-19 vaccine and that will go a long way with slowing down the spread of the virus. Unfortunately, there are still large numbers of Robeson County residents who have chosen not to get vaccinated. More people need to be vaccinated to continue to move forward with fighting COVID-19. If you are still on the fence about the vaccine, I encourage you to get your information from reliable sources. Those who can give you scientific data to support the safety of the vaccine and why you need to be vaccinated.

I want to encourage you to be patient with those making the decisions regarding the mandates and suggestions, as well as those managing the research and the data reporting. To use a phrase I have heard before, “we are building a plane while we are flying it.” The research is ongoing, and we learn a little more with each new study.

We have also learned many new ways to get things done during COVID-19. Virtual access has been a critical piece to everything we as a community have had to do. Some of those changes we will want to continue and some we will never want to do again. Many organizations, including North Carolina Cooperative Extension, will want to continue to offer virtual options even when we return to more in-person efforts.

N.C. Cooperative Extension, Robeson County Center continues to be committed to staying in touch! We are slowly beginning to provide more in-person options for programming, and we are very interested in knowing what information you need from us and how you want to receive that information. Please don’t hesitate to let us know what you need from Extension. We will continue to add to and update the ways you can get information from us.