As the state of Michigan begins opening back up, I'm faced with social choices again. 

There are a lot of things I'm excited about with the world opening up again (food being the most obvious one), but the thing I'm least excited about is making social choices. 

As an introvert and people pleaser, I'm constantly at war between pleasing people by saying yes to everything and fleeing to a mountain with no cell service. 

During the pandemic, this dichotomy fell away. 

"Wanna hang out?" - COVID
"Wanna go to X?" - COVID

None of the above questions were even asked thanks to COVID. I had to make ZERO social decisions because there were none to make. 

With things opening back up though, the requests are once again trickling in. And I'm left floundering, my social skills weakened like my immune system as they were trapped inside all year. 

As I tend to do, I've started to create systems that protect my time. 

Yet I'm wondering if they will be effective or even a good idea. 

Is social life something that can be engineered? What's the difference between a boundary and a wall? 

As things open up, I will have to begin considering these scary questions once again. 

Wish me luck.