Our ability to adapt to our environments is what has ensured the survival of our species.

As humans, we are remarkably good at adapting. We learn from one another, we find ways to transcend seemingly insurmountable obstacles and we communicate constantly in all sorts of creative ways. We try out possible solutions. We share what we have learned. We quickly move on when we find that what we have learned has changed and we often do so with humour, humility and a sense of self-deprecation. We frequently judge and critique and we do so cringingly quickly. Until we know better.  Until we become the one that is being judged and then we think again. We learn.

In Psychology, we are often reminded about the importance of focusing on our ‘circle of influence’. What are the things we can control and what not? The idea is that we should spend most of our time and energy on the aspects of our lives that we can control. Philosophies abound when times are tough.

In the last few months our ‘circles’ have shrunk significantly. Then new circles started to appear. We figured out the use of technologies that we should have done long ago and we did so without manuals and weeks of training. We adapted. Students became our teachers when they explained the use of an online platform in the middle of an online lecture and in turn, we realized the wide applicability of our own disciplines within the midst of a global pandemic. Suddenly, scientists once again received more airtime than twitterati.

Adversity has a way of neon-lighting the essential. It teaches us to give ourselves a break. To be even more compassionate to others. What is most important when we teach? What are the most critical things that need to get done today? Who are most important in my life? Which aspects of my life need attention and how can I make the most of what I have?

In the existentialist classic book, The Plague (1947), Albert Camus reminds us that we should not be so surprised about plagues. We are mortal beings and we all live in a constant state of vulnerability anyway. We should live our lives as such.

Fortunately, one of the benefits of being human is our ability to learn from the past. How can we do better next time? But, when the whole world takes a pause, we also have the opportunity to ask: ‘How can we do better right now?’ This pandemic is an amplifier of human nature. It is giving us the opportunity to recalibrate our world. What we do and decide now will have compound consequences for our futures.

We will soon have to adapt yet again. Schools will be opening up and many will return to work. But it will not be a return to the world we knew. It will be a different world. A new normal. HG Wells said that ‘intellectual versatility is the compensation for change, danger and trouble’ and we will surely need it in this ‘new normal’.

Prof Irma Eloff, Dept of Educational Psychology