2021 Aspirations

Out With the Old, In With the New - Well, Somewhere In the Middle Please

By Alana Edgley, Year 9, University Campus

'Ok Alana, so what are your hopes for the new year?'

If this question had been posed to me prior to this year, my answer would be unequivocally different from my answer now. It would have certainly included simple New Year’s resolutions that many of us have and over time forget; eat healthy, exercise, travel; the usual “old” stuff. This year has been something no one could have predicted, but the time spent at home, pondering my hopes and goals, has provided me with a new perspective for the year to come. 

In our hectic lifestyles, we are often too busy and often only fleetingly assess our values and expectations.   Like most people, I would love for everything to go back to normal.  However, I hope our new normal brings key components to the forefront of our day-to-day lives, such as compassion, connection and in particular, balance. Often we accumulate activities, responsibilities and expectations that latch onto us, almost like velcro. Prior to COVID, I think like many of us, I struggled to find a balance with my commitments and had little downtime. This is why I hope the time spent doing the other extreme, isolation, allows balance to become a key aspect of our new normal. 

I am extremely excited and looking forward to getting back into the activities missed this year, especially sport wise. Whilst zoom training was enjoyable, through the screen we are not able to demonstrate the face-to-face teamwork and spirit that sport provides. Although I have already had a few games back at netball, tapping the opposing teams' elbows in replacement of the usual handshake does not have the same congratulatory feel. I’m also looking forward to new opportunities, in particular, I am eager for debating in person. In the online debates this year, it was a struggle to communicate with my team through a google doc whilst madly trying to formulate rebuttals together, so I’m hoping the teamwork aspect of debates can easily be reconnected in the face-to-face learning environment. Bring on the new normal and all the opportunities that come with it!

The COVID-19 Aftermath - An Exciting New World 

Edward Redlich, Year 9, University Campus

Confined within the four walls of our homes we have spent the last 7 months hidden from society, with little freedom. We have been without our sport, our holidays, our friends, we have been distanced from our loved ones. For all the wrong reasons, this year will be remembered. Despite this hardship, we have survived through our commitment to each other. Because of the response the COVID-19 environment demanded of us, things will never be quite the same again. We have discovered how to communicate, work and study by using technology to its fullest potential. Worker, teacher and student alike have reached out beyond the physical environment to achieve their objectives in an entirely new way. This is the way of the future, we will never return to how things were before, but instead, use the mediums we have discovered to open new ways in which to relate to each other. As the year of 2021, progresses businesses and schools will change their methods of working and learning for the better. 

Whilst nothing will ever replace the value of face-to-face communication and contact, virtual meetings will, within limits, continue to be an accessible alternative. We have begun to understand the benefits of a predominantly technological way of life. It gives us more free time for exercise and social interaction as well as the opportunity to pursue a hobby. It will have benefits for our precious climate with fewer people driving to and from work or school. So, as the New Year approaches, I am excited by how this new way of life will become integrated with the traditional forms of working, teaching and learning.