One of the strangest things to come from this quarantine (so far) is a small but very surreal change in the way that I think about “the outside world.” Before, it just was. It was ordinary, it was omnipresent, and it was familiar.

Now, whenever I look out my window, everything feels so foreign somehow. Like outside is suddenly a distant country that I’ve only heard about. Maybe even something akin to an urban legend, rather than anything tangible or real.

I would never have expected to feel that way—especially so quickly. I wonder how long it will take to become reacquainted with the world after things go back to normal.