Back to Church

 I went back to church today.

First time I've been back in the building since like...October. 

As I stopped going to church when our COVID cases increased to over 1,000 a day. 

I mean, I'm constantly exposed to people in my job since I work retail...and since my ward meets on a college campus...I was more than a little leery about going to yet one more place where I could possibly catch the virus from when I already risk myself 5 days a week for ungrateful people.

But the past couple of weeks, our case counts have finally gone down again.

To the point where we're consistently reporting under a 1,000 cases and most of the time cases are under like 500 new cases reported a day.

And I could have started attending church again like...two weeks ago.

But the funny thing about the 'unknown' is that sometimes it can stress you out.

And 2 weeks ago...I wasn't quite in the mental frame of mind to interact with people who weren't my roommates or customers at work.

It's an unknown group. My ward. As my old ward was split and placed into a different ward like...two weeks before everything shut down for the pandemic. So I know next to nobody in the ward because I never really had a chance to interact with anyone before it all went crazy. 

In any case.

Today I was actually in a good mental place to be able to handle the possibility of interacting with strangers and being in a different place than my usual places for an hour. 

So for the first time since like...October...my roommates and I all went to church together.

Lol my one roomie who has steadfastly gone the entire pandemic was so happy that we chose to go with her this time. 

And I have to say it wasn't too bad.

Like yes, there were still individuals who can't properly wear a mask. But the social distancing was still in place. Everyone was rather respectful and such and I barely interacted with anyone. So bright side.

It still left me on edge though.

Like being in a different place. Surrounded by strangers. Yah. I could feel my anxiety about it spiking even though I was doing what I could to remain calm and such. 

But yah. Gonna take some getting used to to get back to feeling comfortable heading to church every week.

But I am grateful that cases are finally down to the point where I feel safer going to church. 

So yah. Fun times.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi