What I Got Out of Two Years of Lockdown
Aside from a go-to topic of small-talk
Tomorrow marks my return to working on-site.
It also marks 263 days of lockdown.
From 2010–2017, Melbourne, Victoria was the World’s Most Liveable City. Ironic since it also now holds the title for #1-City-Spent-Most-Time-In-Lockdown. Before us, it was Buenos Aires and their 234-day lockdown from March 20 to November 11, 2020. However, they were a consecutive shutdown. We, in Victoria, have had to suffer the toxic effects of an on-and-off relationship with freedom.
Our 263 days has been spread over the two years of 2020–21. We went from feeling at ease that we were safe in lockdown as the likes of the United States, Italy and India had widespread death from lack of government regulation… to literally protesting in the street against how strict our government was regulating our day-to-day lives.
Currently, we’re on the road-map out of lockdown. People are ringing up to make bookings. We’re calling restaurants. We’re calling hairdressers or beauty salons. We’re checking cinema offerings. We’re organising our online orders to return/exchange instore. We’re looking wistfully at our trackies — the uniform of lockdown. They were the comfortable clothes we wore through every class call or work meeting on Zoom, through every Netflix binge and, of course, through press conference where Dan Andrews convolutedly explained the numbers of the day.
It truly is a matter of sad/happy. I am ecstatic that life is returning to ‘normal.’ That we’re taking a step to once again being those social creatures we innately are. Personally, I’m looking forward to be alone surrounded by people; to study in a library, to watch a movie in the cinemas, to read a book in a cafe. However, I’m also apprehensive.
Firstly, the jokes of our social meters becoming severely low ring true. One social interaction has me wanting to sleep for a week and deal. This isn’t even necessarily a purely recreational thing; even working around people. During lockdown I would sometimes go to school and look after the students whose parents were essential workers. Those were the days where I had some sense of normalcy; of having to wake up, get dressed, prepare my lunch, drive to school and help students as I shuffled around with my lanyard and work boots. Those were also the days where I come home, crash and need about three days to recuperate.
Of course, we all adjust to routine given enough time. Yet, I can’t help but wonder as to the deeper repercussions of all this. I’ve already spoken about the horrible reality that some kids will never recover from losing two years of their schooling experience. Psychology has defined critical and sensitive periods in human development and whilst these tend to largely pertain to early childhood/infancy, I do still believe that every single child in every year level has lost something crucial.
1. an early stage in life when an organism is especially open to specific learning, emotional, or socializing experiences that occur as part of normal development and will not recur at a later stage.
I was actually once approached by a toddler in the park and he stared at me in shock and confusion. His mother laughed, “It’s because you don’t have your mask on.” I thought it was a subtle slight, as I didn’t have one on due to me sitting quite far in open air (and just being a little bit over it I won’t lie). However, she wasn’t just joking or being passive aggressive: she was being genuine. This the reality of COVID-babies.
And the reality of every other year level is this: Preps are confused and having nightmares about disease. They sometimes even fear playing with other kids — or even are just confused as to how to interact with other children.
Middle-schoolers sink down deeper in their ‘awkward pre-pubescent phase’ because they’re not confronted with each other on a daily basis and forced to talk and learn self-confidence.
Year 12s, stressed from the pressures of their final exams, are thinking thinking ‘what’s the point?’ Why bother worrying about exams if I can’t really do anything because I’m stuck at home.
A line of thought that I can all too much empathise with.
With all of this in mind, here is the silver lining — here are the positive things I got out of spending so much time in lockdown and (hopefully) the end of an era:
- Losing 15kg through little healthy habits.
- Falling back in love with reading books.
- Starting a Medium account and realising what it takes to be a writer (hint: it’s more than just actually writing).
- Getting a clearer path on my studies/career — and accepting that it may very well still change.
- Joining a new church to help with spiritual growth.
- Re-decorating my physical spaces.
- Buying a wardrobe that I’m comfortable in.
- Discovering a love for walks and parks.
- And the beach. I never knew what was my ‘special space’ until I realised how down I felt not being able to go the beach. Truly a case of ‘you don’t know what you have until you lose it.’
- Everything passes. Stay hydrated through it all.
