Diary Entries

As an Australian Muslim woman of Lebanese heritage, the Corona virus has meant confronting my fears of existential loneliness. I have been living alone after getting divorced in 2019. I chose to live alone because I value my freedom, space and privacy. And yet, this choice, like all choices in life is fraught with beauty and pain. I went from spending 90% of my time out - gym, three times a week, being part of two writing collectives, working full-time, studying one day a week, seeing family and friends and dating to being confined in my granny flat in Yagoona with my cat for daily company. Since being confined at home, I have found myself ruminating on old fears of being alone and going through highs and lows. But I want to share some achievements because this is part of my self-care. What have I done since being confined at home? <ol> <li>I wrote an article that will be published shortly, my first paid and published work in a long time.</li> <li> I tried to make a sourdough starter and ended up binning it because I am pretty sure that's not how it's meant to smell.</li> <li>I started a resin river table DIY project that is still ongoing.</li> <li>I lead a virtual Zumba session in a large work meeting to remind myself and others to stay active for our mental health and to remember to have fun.</li> <li>I featured in a work podcast reflecting on what I am doing to stay passionate while working from home.</li> <li>I made chocolate smash balls for Eid.</li> <li>I cooked a Ramadan feast for my boyfriend and his friends.</li> <li>I reached out to my lovely counsellor.</li> <li>I hosted my friends for iftaar and coloured my friend's hair green.</li> </ol>

The past few months have been a train wreck! There has been no socialising with friends, lots of restrictions, no going out and most of all no toilet paper. If you want me to be honest, I thought the world was going to end before we all knew it. During isolation, my family have fought, eaten all the food, re- arranged our rooms and gone cRaZy!! It was hard at first but it got easier as we went along. I remember the day I found out we were homeschooling. The first thing I remember thinking was 'how am I going to see my friend?' After a few days of online learning, I started to enjoy it a lot. I liked it because I could work at my own pace, go to the kitchen during lunch and recess and eat whatever I wanted and go to the toilet without needing to ask my teacher. Now we are all back at school. Did I mention before that my year 7 camp got cancelled?! Yeah, I was devastated!!!!! Hopefully it gets postponed. Anyways, that was my life during isolation. Bye! :)

I walked into the shops a few weeks ago. I was getting my groceries with my mum and dad and I noticed that there was not a lot of items on the shelves, so as we were walking to the middle aisle there was a shelf that was just empty with nothing on it to one end to the other and it turns out it was the toilet paper aisle. I thought what toilet paper why toilet paper, then the hand sanitiser was all gone the tissues the paper towels. I thought we would have to use something else when we finish going to the toilet. I woke up one day, I was getting ready for school and my dad and mum said you're not going to school today. I said why, my mum said because the school is closed you are learning online for the next 4-5 weeks. I was happy but day by day online learning got worse ,trying to find work, handing in work on time it was hard because I had never used a computer for online learning like this work.

My time away from school was pretty challenging as we started to do online school work. Being away from friends and being isolated from school was very tough. Work was a bit harder as I didn't have teachers by my side to help me and it was hard to understand some messages online. It was hard to keep up to date because of all the new emails and new tasks posted on google classroom. I did like staying home because after I was done work and homework I could relax at home. Also I kept going to the pantry and the fridge to get food during class time. I didn't mind staying home and doing work but I'd rather go to school to see all my friends and teachers. The thing that upset me the most is we couldn't go on our camping trip due to Coronavirus. I'm glad to be back at school because I get to see all my friends and teachers. My friends and I kept in touch as we would call each other or play games together on the Ps4. Life in quarantine was hard but I learned how to cope with it and I still learnt at home. It wasn't that bad but I definitely rather be in school. I hope coronavirus never happens again so that we can stay in school, talk to our friends and be able to socialise again.

COVID 19 has been hard I couldn't see any of my friends. and facetiming them isn't the same and I couldn't do any sport, all sports got cancelled and I miss all my friends from soccer and school. I go to the park everyday with my family and we go shoot some hoops or we kick the ball around. The only thing that really kept me company everyday was my brothers, NETFLIX and facetiming my friends. Being back at school has been the BEST. I get to see my friends and it is so much better than being stuck at home. Our first high school camp got cancelled which was a bit disappointing but if I had to say something good came out of COVID 19 it is our NAPLAN got cancelled and saved everyone from a bunch of stressing.

The things we've seen in these times. Face masks as fashion statements, no toilet paper to be seen, the stock has gone in one day, what a world it is. Recently the coronavirus has knocked us out of the idea we manifested 2020 to be, last year we thought that we would have the Olympics, elections, and a calm year. People are financially and mentally scared form Covid-19, from losing jobs and losing lives and just scary. But the coronavirus has given some good outcomes, for example, because we can't go anywhere we had a lot of family time. From movie nights to game nights and 1000 piece puzzles, it hasn't been too bad.

Covid-19 has been a deadly virus that has spread through almost all countries around the world. Because of how contagious the virus is, people have been isolating in their homes and have been in quarantine. Because of this I need to always have an activity to keep me occupied. Before Covid-19 started, I bought 2 budgies which I now play with every time I become bored in my house. Another have started doing is turning my backyard into a camp ground. We'd go for walks in the morning and after dinner. When things settled down, we were allowed to visit relatives so my dad's sister and her family came to our house. We watched TV, played with our budgies, played in the backyard then had dinner. once we finished eating they went home. The next day we went to the park to play soccer, we set up the goals, and played a mini game of soccer.

I prefer not to be ignored, not to be confused with bored, Some say I'm smart and a memer, others say I'm as dumb as a lemur, But the times I'm in, are as deadly as a sin, COVID-19 storms the lands, hurting people with touching hands, it all started in Wuhan, China, at first thought to be minor, it is now quite major, to wash your hands, was most's plans, while we waited for an antivirus, the higher confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Thank You For reading

Isolating at home through COVID-19 was kinda fun, I got to do a work out everyday and video call my friends. But it's had some down sides it stopped me from going to Queensland and camp. I found at home I was doing more work at home than a school but the best thing was that NAPLAN got cancelled.

ANONYMOUS NSW COVID-19 has had a impact on the world. You can no longer sit at restaurants and you must stay at least 1.5 meters away from people at all times. It is now normal to see people walking around with masks and gloves.