2020-21 Covid Chronicles | Post-2020 Reflection | MAR 2020 (Lockdown Birthdays)

 Lockdown Birthdays

I turned 29 during lockdown.

It's not a significant age, but to 'stay at home' was not what I imagined I would be doing on a Friday.

As we all settled into lockdown, no one was sure about anything. In the chaos, I was relieved. I was waking up at 7:30 am to post work for students and was back to sleep by 8 am. My timetable was according to me and I was not working for my birthday.

When my birthday rolled around, I ordered as much food on Uber Eats and watched The Little Mermaid to make the best of the situation.

It was the best, but loneliest birthdays I had ever experienced in my life.

Next: Two Weeks They Said...

2020-21 Covid Chronicles | Post-2020 Reflection | FEB 2020 (Rumours of WWIII)

Remember When We Thought it was World War III?

February was crazy.

Do you remember when we thought we were on the brink of war when North Korea was testing missiles? Almost every 18-35-year-old female was like, "Oh, I'm no longer a feminist because I do not want to be conscripted!" Not to mention the rise of TikTok and the odd flex of showcasing how 'useless' Millenials and Gen Z would be on a battlefield. It was simultaneously entertaining and concerning.

Yeah, we took WORLD WAR III so lightly that karma hit us with a reality shock in the same month.

Governments were confused. They went from preparing for a possible war across seas to suddenly fight an invisible war in their homelands. Suddenly, it wasn't about taking up arms, it was washing up to our arms more than once a day. Eventually, things started to close down and we were counting down to the inevitable: a worldwide lockdown.

But week in and week out, there I was in a classroom with fewer and fewer students waiting for the announcement. I remember sitting in my classroom and the Headteacher came in to see if I was sticking around through this 'unprecedented time'. So, chronologically speaking, this brings us back to...

Why did I stay? After the depressing two months so far, why didn't I take the opportunity to head home?

Simple: it was easier. Staying meant I didn't have to pack up again. I just got here. 

By the time February hit, my backbone was so thick I couldn't recognise the girl in the mirror. I was different. To this day, I don't who that b*tch was, but I can still feel the numbness that she went through when I remember my early days in the UK. That version of me was a robot. I was so unfeeling that I was in the school building by 7:30 am and left at 3 pm. I came in so early I didn't see anyone until lunchtime. I would talk to people, but I kept mostly to myself. By the time the half-term hit, I was just working to distract myself from the hell I was living.

When the news turned from declaring war against a superpower to declaring war against a super virus, I felt like Robin Williams in The Bicentennial Man: I was becoming human again. Yes, 'the new normal' was emerging, but it was very clear that I was a caterpillar getting ready to build a cocoon. This version of me was about to disappear alongside normality.

As the news flooded facts about Covid-19, conversations in the classroom changed from content to our context. From a teaching perspective, I was fortunate to be in a school that was technologically advanced that online learning would be simpler than other schools. Regardless...it was about the when not if.

It was through all this talk that I saw some humanity from the very people I feared. Suddenly, a global pandemic saw the stifling system breakdown to remind everyone that we teach people not content. But the delay on schools closing down was very slow. It was so slow, we still held a parent-teacher evening before there was an official announcement. It was three painful weeks before we closed down. I remember ending the last Friday with five students sitting in my classroom and watching a movie. There was nothing else to do. 

Regardless, the announcement came and my cocoon came in a form of my blanket and the best sleep I had in weeks.

Little did we know, it was just the beginning.

Next: Lockdown Birthdays 

NEW SERIES (NB: Non-travel Related Content) | 2020-21 sL Covid Chronicles | JAN 2020 (Intro)

Do You Remember "1st January 2020"?

That date seems so far ago. 

You might be wondering why I'm posting this reflection 19-ish months late. Well, the simple answer is that I was depressed.

I had just moved to the UK in December 2019 and was learning the ropes in a new country. The first week was a rollercoaster: I got a job three days after landing in the country but found out renting a place was a lot harder than I expected. Essentially, I had work, but I was 'homeless'. My sister and I were sharing a room - emphasis on 'a single room' - in an Airbnb, trying to navigate the rental world without proof of having any 'previous tenancy'. To be fair, the slump was only two weeks - and we were in Hackney - but it was one of the longest two weeks in my life...well, until the real the sh*t show came around the corner.

Fast forward to a week before Christmas where we moved into our amazing little flat in West London. My sister and I were excited for the new year - heck, a new decade! We were gearing up for our first duo Christmas tradition: matching Christmas PJs from Primark, hot chocolate with whipped cream, and a real Christmas Tree!!! Things were looking up. We celebrated the end of the year with a typical British high-tea, courtesy of my sister's former colleagues, and a walk through the famous Hyde Park. It was freezing, but we were loving the new prospects of our new home. As the New Year dawned on us, we were super excited.

So why was I depressed?

Simple, I was homesick.

More specifically, I was routine-sick. I love my mum and dad, but I was video calling them so often it was like I never left Sydney. No. I wasn't home-homesick, I was work-homesick and friend-homesick. The school I was working at was SUPER strict and unloving that I almost quit one week into the Spring Term. I didn't hate the students, I hated the system. I felt like I was being watched 24-7 and I was going to lose my job at any time. I was also really confused with church life. I felt like people saw me, but I wasn't seen. They heard me, but in reality, no one was actually listening. Needless to say, 2020 did not start well for me. professionally and socially. I was ready to pack my bags and head home ASAP.

I missed the friends I grew up with, studied with, and worked with; I missed being familiar to, well, anyone. I felt invisible.

So, why did I stay?

Next: FEB 2020 - Rumours of Wars