Part V (June 2021-August 2021)

The summer of 2021 was a hopeful time for many as case rates dropped and vaccination rates rose. The Delta variant wasn’t prevalent as summer began, and normalcy seemed within reach.

 Garcia: “I was just living my life in the most normal way I could and just waiting for it to just stop because even though you don’t really care about it, and you try to keep going with life, you can’t. It’s still a big part of the world around us.”

Stein: “Normal is always relative. But [at] each stage, it just feels like you’re getting closer and closer to it. And for me, this is the first day that I didn’t wear a mask. And, for me, this is another mental step for me to move forward and say, Okay, I’m gonna I’m going to personally move on with this. And I would say that in another four months, there will probably be another phase where I feel like ah, this feels more normal, right?”