I have probably used the words “unprecedented” and “tumultuous” more in the past couple of years than I have during the entire 18 years before that, and I presume it would be the same for most of us. Since the biggest waves of COVID-19 have passed by and my life seemed to “return to normalcy” with the lifting of mask mandates, resumption of offline classes and club activities, and much more cultural events to explore through, my usage of these terms has also dropped back down to near-zero.

But as I skim through news headlines and edit the articles Herald reporters have written, the world now seems no less tumultuous than during the COVID-era, if not more. There seems to be no end to global conflicts. Economies are yet to recover. Countries are going through drastic political changes — as we shine light onto the reorientation of the Brazilian government with the recent elections and examine the problems faced by both the outgoing and incoming UK prime ministers in this month’s International column and Spotlight. 

To be honest, as much as I know these global events are important, I can’t help but view the issues from a detached observer’s perspective. But the more that physical distance closes in and the sufferers are narrowed, the events strike home. The Itaewon crowd crush is one such case — as unbelievable as it was when I first heard the news, were I in Seoul during the Halloween weekend, who knows if I would have visited that alleyway out of curiosity? The diminutive differences in choices and coincidences are what differentiates each of our lives. One ordinary, mundane day for me may be one others would want to remove all memories of.

And it seems I should be recognizing that this isn’t just true for one particular day. Happenings (whether they be delightful or dreadful) come and go every day. Some of them affect individuals more significantly than others; at times, a multitude of those occurrences overlap. So what defines how “normal” our lives are? 

I’m not going to suddenly say that we can just change our definition of “normal” to claim that the world now becomes normal — the past few months have not failed to surprise me. But ultimately, we adjust to the environment around us, and pretty well at that. While widening our range of what we consider normal may be beneficial and even valuable, our boundaries must be clear. This month’s Society columns on the Itaewon crush and the death of a Paris Baguette factory worker highlights the necessity of enforcing safety laws and awareness. International discusses migrant workers’ rights in the preparation for the 2022 Qatar World Cup. In News, a review of the Town Hall Meeting describes students’ suggestions for the improvement of KAIST as an education facility. And in this month’s Feature, we continue with our discussion of how living conditions at KAIST should be improved. We should be conscious of where our standard of “normal” is currently at, and where we should be guiding it towards. 
 

Searching for normalcy,

Hae-Rim Kim

Editor-in-Chief