People Are Sharing All The Things They’ll Never Take For Granted Again And Oh God My Heart
We miss hugs.
Author and TV producer Elan Gale asked a simple question on Twitter, wanting to know what people will never take for granted again. The replies are heartwarming and sad.
The coronavirus and its fallout has meant a swift and severe change in how we live our lives. All of a sudden, especially due to self-isolation, we find ourselves not being able to do the things that we naturally would do all of the time. For a lot of people, this has meant realising how much they might have underappreciated things. Elan Gale, a TV producer, best known for his work on the U.S version of ‘The Bachelor’ got to the heart of that. He tweeted out a request, asking people to share one thing they’ll never take for granted again.
Name one thing you will never take for granted again
— elan gale (@theyearofelan) March 27, 2020
Showing that this is something that has also impacted celebrities just as much as everyone else, icon Chrissy Teigen weighed in early.
touching people’s hands when I laugh, hugging 80 year old dad (I’m a toucher)
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) March 27, 2020
Some other people weighed in with some really specific and heartbreaking examples.
My non-verbal son requesting I rub his arm. He is in lockdown at his group home and I have not touched him for two weeks. Sometimes his constant need for sensory pressure used to bug me. I never realized how soothing it was for me, too- our way of communicating. I miss him.
— iowapeg (@IowaPeg) March 27, 2020
Cupping my MIL face in my hands and kissing her cheek. She’s 90, in a senior center and doesn’t understand why we can’t visit. Heart wrenching.
— Elisabeth Olson (@Elisabethmngirl) March 27, 2020
I’m not crying, you are. Then there’s the people who usually go about their work without much notice, but who have really been propelled to the front during this crisis.
Grocery store employees.
— Jared Haibon (@haibon_jared) March 27, 2020
An extension of that was lots of people saying a similar thing, that they would never again take for granted the process of just quickly popping down to the shops.
Needing something from the store and being able to go get it (and it being there) #nevertakeforgranted
— Carly Chaikin (@carlychaikin) March 27, 2020
And of course, lots and lots of people missing the touch of another human (same). Hugs was a running theme.
Hugging my students everyday
— Barb Bowers-Summers (@SummersBarb) March 27, 2020
Hugs.
— Austin Highsmith Garces (@AustinHighsmith) March 27, 2020
And importantly, there were some joke answers. This is meta because one of the things I will never take for granted is the ability to make dumb jokes!
licking toilets
— Matt Oswalt (@MattOswaltVA) March 27, 2020
Diedrich Bader
— Diedrich Bader (@bader_diedrich) March 27, 2020
Gale had some wise words at the end of all of this.
Quick idea: if the thing you won’t take for granted anymore is a person, call them or text them right now and tell them. I bet they’ll be really happy to hear it
— elan gale (@theyearofelan) March 27, 2020
If you want to have a good old cry, you can read the entire thread here.