Closing time for 2020

Goodbye 2020.

The closest glimpse we have had so far to the apocalypse, was 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and the raging fires that engulfed our beautiful land.

2020 taught us that toilet paper is both precious and highly sought after during a crisis. I for one never imagined a time in my life where full on punch up's over some dunny rolls, would be a thing, but now I kind of get it.

We learnt that people that are willing to break self-isolation orders will be the zombies that are biting people when that apocalypse happens.

2020 you showed us that at any moment, everything can change. We started the year surrounded by flames, we saw homes burnt to ashes and more than 800 million wildlife were lost to the wildfires that swept though our country lasting for 210 days.

We faced lockdowns, something that none of us ever thought would happen in our life time and we got through it. We will continue to get through them in the coming year too.

Things we had never thought about before, like mask-ne and "where can I buy more hand sanitiser?" were suddenly issues.

We saw the height of panic buying, where rice, packet pasta and two-minute noodles were basically gold that could be used for bidding and trading.

We had our eyes opened to how selfish the human race can be; people buying up essential items like nappies and baby formula only to try to sell them on for three and four times the price.

We also saw how selfless humans can be, with fire fighters fighting relentless flames until they passed out right beside their trucks.

We witnessed infectious humans purposely coughing on fruit in supermarkets and spitting in the faces of our police officers.

And we saw women sewing and giving away free masks to the public out of their own kindness and will for the greater good.

The pandemic won't end with 2020, but life as we always knew it will. Things will always be different now.

The world as a whole will have us divided by sneeze guards and on edge at the sound of someone in public clearing their throat. We have seen how quickly disease can spread, even in our rich and free country. We are now aware.

We have such lengths to go through, in rebuilding our economy. After the fires were finally put out, we wanted to venture out into our country towns and really see our home. To spend money and to support our locals, but COVID-19 not only stopped us in our tracks, but made situations far worse for our small businesses and Australia's tourism.

So I say, Hello to 2021 and hopes to a functional, safe vaccine and another chance for us to travel this sunburnt land, to support locals, small towns and our farmers.

May we soon see the end of the global pandemic and strive to all be better, more selfless people.

Let's look to see how we can do our part to support the regrowth of our environment and our economy. Let's spend more of our money here, in Aus. Let's come back stronger than we were and prove we still have the spirit of the bush, that we're all still true blue.

Stay safe. Give, love, and grow. Happy New Year!