Almost a year ago, I opined about our COVID-19 experience in a small Wisconsin town. In that blog, I wrote about how the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the then-existing Stay-at-Home order as unconstitutional and allowed businesses to keep their doors, and their arms, open.

In the weeks and months which followed, my wife and I have spent our time enjoying Wisconsin restaurants and traveling between our home in the Dairy State and Florida. We recently bought a new home in Cape Coral, and are learning to navigate the Caloosahatchee River, the intracoastal waters, the Gulf of Mexico, and dozens of water-facing bars and restaurants.

As we flew back and forth over the course of the last year, we would often comment on how few “coughs” there were anymore. Long past are the days were passengers in the airport, or in any location, felt the freedom to simply “let out” a good, liberating cough. Whether it was a dry throat, or swallowing some water down the wrong pipe, we felt as if, if we coughed out loud, we would be shunned by the world. A thousand eyes staring us down and glaring with hatred.

So, we muffled our coughs and swallowed our sneezes.

Then, thank goodness, May 2021 arrived, and CDC lifted its mask guidance for those who were vaccinated. Servers shed their masks at most restaurants in Florida, and a sense of normalcy began to return. As my wife and I were departing from our house, we stopped at a restaurant bar near our departure gate and ordered a cocktail. After proclaiming the obligatory “cheers” to a great couple of days, we heard something we had not heard in quite awhile. A human cough.

After glancing at each other and locking eyes, we giggled. We didn’t care. And neither did another couple in the opposite corner of the restaurant, because they coughed too. It was fabulous. For the first time in a year, we didn’t feel as if we needed to hide our faces, our feelings or our random, occasional — and innocent — coughs.

I hope these trends continue throughout the U.S., and not just in states like Wisconsin and Florida. We have all endured a long journey to get to this point and I hope we can all now begin to live our lives without prescriptive mandates about where we can go and what we can do.

As our nation’s health returns to normal, so too will the common “cough.” I truly feel it is time to live out loud, laugh out loud, and cough out loud.

Welcome back, America.

Finally — it’s okay to “cough” again

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