The spike in Victoria

Every state in Australia was showing a great coronavirus recovery. It was all positives with almost every state in Australia not receiving a single case of community transmission for weeks and months. The recent spike in Victoria has shown hundreds of new cases of coronavirus and unknown origins of community transmission. This crazy sudden change makes me think of a few things.

Friends and family

I have a few friends and family in Victoria and the recent spike makes me think of them. My grandmother has already lost her business and I know has been struggling socially. Additionally, my uncle, aunt and my new baby cousin who have been cooped up for weeks and working from home. Right when the end of the tunnel seemed near, Victoria is now entering another six weeks of lock down. I also think of my brother who has had to come home since he moved to Melbourne for university. He was so looking forward to his first year and the friends and experiences he would make. He seems to be slowly accepting that he will probably not be going back this year. Finally, I think of some of my friends in Victoria who may not be able to come back to South Australia for semester two. It seems that this spike is going to completely change the prospects for some peoples 2020.

Uncertainty

Not only does this event make me think of friends and family and how this will affect them but also about how uncertainty is the new normal. I was telling my uncle about how uncertain I was about everything and that any decision I will make is likely to be a last-minute unorganized one and he told me that, “to be honest, any decision that is a last-minute unorganized one is probably quite fitting for the times we are living in”. This highlighted to me just how changed everything is. How nothing is fixed anymore, how uncertainty is the online certain. The coronavirus pandemic may be impossible to eliminate from Australia and without a vaccine everything could change in a matter of days and weeks just like in Victoria. However, perhaps we can look at this as a glass half full. Living on the edge with a moments notice, our lives are now crazy and underdetermined.