I’m Excited to Get My Vaccination Today, but Why?
Why does getting my COVID-19 vaccination almost feel like “New Year's Eve” except I don’t enjoy New Years'?
I am scheduled to get my COVID-19 vaccination today, and yes, I know that I am one of the lucky ones to be receiving it already — perks of being older and having some bothersome health issues.
Scheduling my vaccination was a bit of a pain in the**, and I am in one of the better states related to COVID policy, guidance, and how well we are doing on the public vaccination program.
Yet, despite having a job that allows me to get my vaccination a bit sooner, having a health condition that qualifies me, and being of an age that is just close enough, why do I feel like it’s “New Year’s Eve”?
Since I first heard that I would sign up to get the vaccine on March 1st, I felt myself getting a bit more excited. I wasn’t sure why at the time, perhaps just because I saw others getting excited about it on Facebook.
Then February 28th rolled around, and I made myself stay up late (for me) just so that I would see March 1st roll around and I could be one of the first to get online to register.
Yes, I figured many would not think of this or have the determination to stay awake. By the way, I was wrong.12:01 a.m. rolls around, I log on, and the system hasn’t updated. OK, I will try again, and again, and again…
At about 12:15, I think it was, updated and I could register. Well, there it was; I was still too “young”?! “No, I have these other qualifications,” so I tried again. Nothing!
I kept trying for well over an hour until I finally gave up, went to bed with sadness and a bit of anger in my heart. Well, maybe not that bad, but I was pissed.
Yes, I woke up pissed too, and after trying in vain for hours and hours, and yet more hours, I saw the problem, or what I thought was the problem. The older folks get to go first, then people like me. OK, it sucks, but I will get over it, or will I?
Hours later, I reached out to a sibling, and she informed me that her husband younger than I was able to register for his vaccination. “What the heck,” I asked myself? She shared his secret, and off to the computer I went.
Alas, after a few more hours in front of the screen trying every secondary location to get the vaccination, I got a slot, or did I? Nope, yes, I’m not sure!
I opened my email, and there was not one confirmation of not one but two sets of shots schedule confirmations; you would think that I would be super happy? I should have been satisfied, especially after thinking that I hadn’t gotten a slot and all. Nope, I wasn’t; I was scared.
But what was I scared about having gotten my vaccination appointment? That the emails were a glitch and I was going to arrive and then tell me to “go away.”
After getting these confusing confirmation emails, I took to the telephone for close to an hour and a half of “on hold” music. I had to know for sure that what I saw was really what I saw?
After the time on hold, which felt like a year (on-hold music usually sucks, but this wasn’t the worst), I got my confirmation. Yes, the vaccination folks had me on their list for the first and second shots, and yes, they had caught the duplication and corrected it. No, I did NOT want to take someone else’s opportunity to get their vaccination shots too!
Last night, I got my confirmation email saying to be at the clinic today for my shot; all should be good, right?
Yes, all is great, I feel so blessed and happy to be getting my shot, and I look forward until we have all gotten ours. Yet, I am feeling something more.
I feel right now is something closer to what I have always been told that New Years’ is supposed to feel like, but I never understood. That chance to make something out of the coming year that you hadn’t succeeded in doing in the past. Blowing horns, throwing confetti, and the like.
No, I have never got that excited about New Year’s Eve. When I was younger, it was a reason to hang with friends, drink, and dress up.
New Years’ has been about hanging with friends at a more mature age, perhaps ringing in the new year elsewhere, but in past years, thankful to already be home when the ball drops.
Yet, here I am feeling like it’s New Year’s Eve and the prospect of the coming days, year(s) being different from all the past weighing heavy on my mind. Yet why is this the case, and why do I feel like this?
I am not sure why I am reacting this way, and no, I still have not gotten the shot, but I will go just after mid-day today, but I can tell you this.
I am hopeful we will all get our shots, and things will be better if not “normal” again very soon. I hope, and I would venture to say “expect” of all of us is for us to take stock of where we have been and what the future offers us.
Yes, it’s been a tough year for all of us. So much frustration, distance (no pun intended), boredom, anxiety, and way too many “loss” of friends and loved ones.
Yet, for those of thus lucky enough to have this opportunity. Getting our vaccination and our one or two shots is a chance. A chance to forget the past, forget this past year for sure, and instead look forward to what we can each do in the future.
Yes, it’s sort of like “New Years,” but for many different reasons, and with the expectation of a much different outcome.
I don’t think that we should plan our next year(s) to be a New Years’ resolution made, then failed on, but instead a real conscience decision to make “change” happen in each of our lives.
Change not only in how we treat ourselves and others. Change not in how we work, and live, but a change in what we can do and how we can genuinely see that change in our lives. We can make this happen this time; I know it!
Yes, I am blessed to get my COVID-19 vaccination today, and yes, I hope you do too, very soon, so we can all be protected together.
Yet this vaccination means so much more. It means the chance to turn away from the past, unrealized goals set then plundered but instead make real “change” in each of our lives. Make a real effort to initiate that change, not only in our own lives but also in others’ lives and of each of our countries.
Through this pandemic, we have found that we are a global community, and though these efforts will start small after these shots, these efforts can reach so much further. We can start with changing our own lives for the better, then help those around us change theirs.
Once we do that, we can use this newfound power for “change” and help our leaders, whatever that may mean, to make real change in our respective countries.
We can insist on our leaders, no “demand” that they reach across the border, the wall, or the ocean, and make “change” with our neighbors.
If we do this, we start with a shot or two, then push to see this change; anything will be possible. Sure we say it each year at New Years’, but this time the outcome can be so much different.
With this pandemic we just went through as a global community, we hope it will be a once-in-a-lifetime crisis, and now it’s “New Year.” Let’s all make this one difference when it’s our time, and we can then all look back at this past dark year and see that it only led us to the light.
The light not only at the end of the tunnel of this pandemic. This dark year we have experienced as a community and the light in each of our lives where we can make real change happen. To be anything we want to be.
In this new “year” we can be happy, a bit wiser, perhaps a bit prosperous, definitely a bit kinder, and see the coming days, years of our lives to be “different”!
OK, time for me to roll up my sleeves and make this “change” happen, starting with me. You right behind me. Great. See you “next year”!
In Closing, Your Thoughts
Are you excited to be nearing the end of this “tunnel” called the pandemic? Will you be getting the vaccination when it’s your turn? Will you wait till others receive it, or not at all? Do you as well feel as it is “New Year’s Eve” all over again? Share your thoughts below.