There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Each day it grows a little closer, a little brighter. With each shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, we are hopefully getting nearer to the end of social distancing and isolation, to schools and businesses and homes reopening.

Of course, though the world might become more familiar, it won’t return to being exactly as it was. And that’s partly a good thing. While there’s much to mourn from the past year, there’s also a lot to celebrate — a lot of experiences and lessons that made our lives richer, healthier, more compassionate, more meaningful.

It became clearer that we should do more to protect and appreciate the people we interact with on a daily basis, even as we make sure to respect their boundaries. That we shouldn’t take for granted the ones we love but don’t see enough — and that maybe we should rethink our living arrangements, or at least our use of technology, to be closer to them. That we should embrace the fresh air around us when dining and working. And that we should be aware of how fleeting our time is so we make the most of it.

These are the things we want to keep as we move past the pandemic.