Farewell 2020

2020.

I have no words.

I keep seeing various news websites posting recaps of 2020. My question - does anyone actually want to read those? Do we want to relive this roller coaster of a year? Do we want to reminisce about the events of one of the hardest years in living memory?

It's very rare that a tough year affects us as a society globally. “A tough year” is something you say to someone at the annual catch up when their life has been plagued by tragedy for 12 months.

At the beginning of the year

the bushfires affected us, as Australians. The news reached all corners of the world that the land down under was burning. And not just one state. Multiple states at a time. Our firefighters were putting themselves in harms way everyday with no reprieve.

I am lucky enough to live in the city by the sea but I still saw the devastating effects. I watched the skies turn grey and clouds of smoke hang over Melbourne, the city I love. It became hard to breathe and masks became the norm as we did our essential shopping, otherwise we locked ourselves inside.

Simultaneously the news was covering some virus that was spreading from Wuhan, China. My thoughts were that it was far away, on the other side of the globe and was surely along the lines of Swine Flu from 2009. Back then I saw major hysteria on the news about Swine Flu but it didn’t change our way of life.

As the weeks went by and the news got graver, we saw Scott Morison shutting the borders, Health officials telling us to sing “Happy Birthday” while washing our hands and to not touch our faces. I felt the panic setting in, mainly at the realisation of how often I do touch my face.

Work felt like chaos. No one knew if we would return to the classroom from one day to the next. My students were asking questions I didn’t have the answers to and kids were spreading information they didn’t understand throughout the school.

I thought I would feel relieved when we finally went into lockdown. Less people moving around and I could stay at home and limit who I came into contact with. However the case numbers seemed to increase and I found myself glued to the daily national press conferences. All anyone could talk about was how many cases there had been that day and were we flattening the curve.

My partner and I were meant to go to Europe this year. It was going to be our first major trip together and one we had been planning for 18 months. We were disappointed we couldn’t go but we felt lucky that we had a choice to stay away from parts of the world worst hit by COVID. I did Photoshop pictures of us in front of various European landmarks so who is to say we didn’t go?

Not all was lost as I did find some new hobbies to pass the time. I invested in some Lego, a candle making kit and went back to the novel I had started writing in 2012. And to my surprise I finished the first draft. I’m actually really proud of my work. It has taken 8 years since starting the novel for me to have grown up a little and be able to separate my own life from the fiction. I am more creative now than I was then.

The difference between 19 year old Frances and 27 year old Frances is I don’t have the leisure of time in order to write as work is exhausting most days but lockdown showed me I have no excuse to not do something I really enjoy. Doesn’t matter how crazy or stressful work is, I need to make time in my week to put my fingers to the keys.

My hopes for 2021 is that I will continue to write. I love the feeling of being on a roll and connecting chapters together. I like thinking of a character quirk or detail and going back into the written chapters and adding it in. They make the characters and story feel real.

I also hope I improve my dental hygiene and apply sunscreen everyday but we will see how long those resolutions last.

Thank you for coming on the journey with me this year. It's been an insane year for all of us. I am sending you love and peace no matter where you are in the world.

Whoops. Looks like I did a mini recap.

Frances xx