Working from home has taken on a new meaning for me these last two months. And that certainly doesn’t apply to me alone. We, the editorial staff of Cursor, exchanged our office in the ever busy and lively hall of the Auditorium for our home offices or living rooms. And we usually weren’t the only ones sitting there. We shared those work spaces with those we love, and sometimes loved a little bit less. But even though we were at home, the store remained virtually open. This meant we had work to do, in fact, we had more work to do than ever before. And not just us.

The same applied to our lecturers, who had to make an all-out effort to fill the store with digital goods for their students. Researchers spent their days on the couch or in the garden brushing up on their literature review, or got around to finally putting the finishing touches on that long-awaited paper. It’s a well-known fact that people always have their best ideas in the shower, and you could now immediately explore these ideas with your hair still wet. Yes people, I’m doing my best to remain optimistic. In the meantime, a large number of auxiliary staff members literally minded the store.

But lecturers want to see students again, researchers want to potter around their labs again, students yearn to meet each other face to face once again, even if it means having to sit through a dreadfully dull lecture. And members of the auxiliary staff, too, want to see the people they help; I expect they would even welcome the habitual complainers with open arms.

The first careful steps into that direction are being taken, but it’s clear that things will be far from back to normal after the summer holidays. I’m at a point right now where I’m ready to punch the next person who says that ‘this is the new normal’ in the face, even though he or she is right of course. In this new normal, our university has proven that its people have enormous flexibility, creativity, talent for improvisation and endurance. When I spoke to president of the Executive Board Robert-Jan Smits last week about the collaboration with the other two board members, he referred to the current crisis as the best teambuilding course ever. I think that’s true for the entire university.

But now I’m going to take a digital timeout. Time for myself and my family. Clear my head of thousands of ideas swirling around, or of the nagging sense there’s a deadline I need to meet. I wish it for all of you and I’ll see you again somewhere around the 25th of May, staring hypnotized into that rectangular laptop, from where I’ll see four or five faces staring back at me.