To take something for granted, etymologically, is to consider its truth without requiring proof.
To take something for granted is to get so complacent with it that you never stop to think about what it would be like to live without it.
To take something for granted is to get so used to its comforting familiarity that you fail to appreciate it because let’s be honest, it’s hard to be aware of something so seemingly everlasting.
Jam-packed libraries during exam season. Full buses. A trip to Tims on a quiet Saturday afternoon. Family picnics. Crowded mosques, churches, synagogues, and temples. Comforting hugs. Bike races around the neighbourhood. Sleepover parties. Volunteering at the local community centre. Busy malls. Never-ending morning traffic jams. Festive potlucks. Brief chats with the neighbours at the bus stop. Graduation parties. Buzzing lecture halls. Office hours.
Those are all things I took for granted. Those are things whose presence is so familiar as to be unnoticed. Those are also things whose absence brings about fear, loneliness, and foreignness.
May we never take anything for granted ever again. May we appreciate and celebrate life and its occasional monotony. May we never need another pandemic to help us realize how fleeting everything really is.