Day 407

You saw the first half of this drawing on Day 386, when I received my first Pfizer dose. Yesterday I received dose No. 2, so I could complete the drawing – and with it, the series!

Grateful and relieved to have my vaccinations done, I’m almost as relieved to stop drawing my hand. Strangely, though, I also feel a bit of anxiety: What will I do now as my daily ritual? In the same way that drawing my hand became a symbol of enduring the pandemic, letting the series go is perhaps symbolic of emerging from my cocoon of safety and re-entering the unpredictable public world.

There’s a lot of talk these days about what it will be like to return to pre-COVID life. Eventually unmasked and without needing to distance, we might look like we did pre-pandemic, but we have all been changed. Even if the world returns to “normal,” we will be different.

Unfortunately, we have a long way to go before we are post-pandemic. Infection rates are climbing again in Washington State, especially with new COVID variants, and an alarming number of people have no intention of being vaccinated. I may be somewhat safer, but I am not without uneasiness. Although I plan to get out more, I will be taking small steps. I’m still wearing a mask. And I’m still washing my hands. (However, it may be a long time before I draw one again!)

Thank you, dear readers, for staying with me – I’m sure you became as weary of this series as I did! If you didn’t, and if you ever want to see the 407 hands again, you can use my search label “hand” on this blog. Or to see the images together, view my Flickr album called “Wash My Hands.” Just for fun, I used the lazy girl’s digital collage method below: screenshots of my Flickr album.