When I was 18 I tried to hike from Mexico to Canada.

Somewhere in mid or northern California, I took a couple weeks off to spend time with a family member who was getting hear surgery.

When I returned to the trail, I was so eager to be back and to start putting in the miles again, and I acted as if I had just left. I got to the trailhead about 12:30pm and proceeded to hike about 20 miles before stopping for the night. Prior to leaving the trail, that was a normal day. I hadn’t accounted for the changes my body went through during two relatively sedentary weeks. I should have eased back into that kind of mileage, but instead, my body rebelled, and I basically twisted my ankle just from overuse – forcing even more time off.

After that incident, I never regained composure. I skipped ahead to catch up with people again, took some more time off, and eventually, after hiking out of Ashland, Oregon, broke down and decided to call it quits.

When I read about airlines cancelling flights because they are not able to manage close to the capacity they did before the pandemic, it reminds me of this personal story. Demand may be there, but many businesses will take time to get back up to the same level of operation after cutting back for a year. Whether that’s hiring, remembering systems, etc.

In our personal lives, we might also allow ourselves to ease back into pre-pandemic speed. If we even want to get back at all.