Lockdown by Sierra Green 7D

Never in a hundred years could I see this coming, I remember when ‘Corona Virus’ hit the news for the first time and social media was flooded with memes and jokes about it being the next black plague. It was funny at the time because that’s all they were, jokes.

One of the hardest things personally has been having no escape from it, you turn on the TV and its plastered everywhere on every news channel, I don’t remember the last time I watched the news and there was something not COVID related. It’s on every social media platform, whether its people still joking about it, trying to spread awareness or enforcing these new rules.

Going onto my actual isolation it has been a roller coaster of emotions, I rely quite heavily on having friends in person and seeing people face to face so it’s been really hard getting used to not seeing that and not having that rush of adrenaline when one of your friends pulled a ‘sicky’ to avoid a test or a subject they dislike and when they come back it feels like that one day has been months. Now it’s probably going to be months.

All though the holidays I wasn’t completely in one spot. I spent five days at my dad’s house in the second week, we were supposed to go to a small town just out of Canberra originally but obviously we couldn’t. He has had to go away for ten weeks, as he has to do grape harvesting then quarantine on the company’s property for two weeks that overlaps with my birthday.

I think we are all just waiting to wake up one morning and everything’s back to normal, all these ‘social distancing’ rules lifted, school back. I can imagine it vividly, what it will be like when everything goes back, restaurants will be booming, shops will be flooded, no one will want to be home for more than an hour.

I can’t even describe the feeling we all have, even if some people are masking it by saying they don’t care about this but deep down we all still occasionally check up on news websites, the death toll, the confirmed cases. Deep down we aren’t scared it’s just that feeling when you turn the lights off in the house and start walking to your bedroom, you know there’s nothing in the dark and you’re going to be okay and make it to your room but still you’ll get a light shiver down your spine and sometimes pick up your pace or whip your head around to double check. In the end you’re fine and make it to bed but still there was that second of what if.

I have to say having the chance of being in pyjamas all day has been pretty good, catching up on shows, watching movies when you please, finishing the dozens of random books littering the floor. So, there is always good things to come out of these situations and we all know it’s not completely dark and there’s still things to distract us and comfort us, we know it’s going to be okay.

Realistically we should all be making reality TV shows like keeping up the Kardashians.

Lockdown by Cooper Germane 7D

Quarantine definitely has had its up and downs. We have now been 30 days and counting in isolation in our house. There have been lots of changes and restriction since COVID-19 started. Supermarket shelves are empty and it’s hard to get a lot of essential food. There have been lots of restrictions put in place by the government that have affected my everyday life.

It’s been quite challenging to get used to all the changes. I don’t get to hang around any of my mates or go up the street for a ride on my bike or scooter. I also have to put up with my little brother Riley all day long and he can really get on my nerve. Plus mum is home all day now working from home.

Every day I do lots of different things like playing with the dog or taking the dog for walk down to the oval, I will watch television or a movie. Playing UNO or other board games with my family. We have been playing lot of basketball in our front drive way - Dad likes to join in after work. Pool in the shed with the fire going at night (Kelly pool is my favourite). We had the tent set up the other night with a fire and made damper in the camp oven. Mum has been getting us to help with the cooking and baking.

The stuff I miss the most in my pre lockdown is that I don’t get to hang out with all my mates, I miss being silly and having fun with them. All the trips that got cancelled, I was supposed to go to Portsea for seven days over the holidays and we were planning a family fishing trip to catch sharks in Port Fairy. All my training at Mildura Martial Arts has been cancelled I would do two nights of MMA and three nights BJJ I miss training and all my friends /team mates. Footy training started but only lasted two weeks before it was stopped. I was recently selected to play for Sunraysia Academy U13 football team, this is on hold now and I really hope it restarts later as this great opportunity that I’m missing out on. We would also go out on the weekend for rides on my motorbike, which we also can’t do anymore.

There will probably be good things that come out of it like we will be stronger as a community and a nation. We also get to be closer as a family and because my mum works at home we get to spend more time together. Other advantages are that we now take things slower as we are not going to training every night after school (even though I also miss this). I appreciate the little things that I really didn’t notice about before. Without online schooling I would have struggled a bit as it keeps me busy. At first it was a bit strange but now I got it down pat and I’m getting all my work done. The WebEx’s have really helped out and I have a greater knowledge of the google classroom, Gmail and word.

It hasn’t been too exiting but it hasn’t been that bad either. I look forward to the restrictions being lifted and everything going back to normal. Let’s hope this happens soon.

Red Cliffs Secondary College Newsletter

Resilient Compassionate Successful Citizens

Issue 5 · 25 May 2020

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