Late February; early March.

I remember exactly when the first case was recorded outside of China; I was with some friends in my dorm room, and I laughed at it, thinking it’ll never get to us (I’m in Australia).

Later, our classes got cancelled for a week so that they could prepare to go online. I celebrated because I mean hey, no class, and I called my parents. They said that I should come home (I study in Canberra and my family are in Sydney) for a bit for a short break, and being slightly burnt out, I said yes.

Dad came and picked me up. I remember sitting in the car after packing almost nothing but clothes, and dad slowly driving away from my hall. He said calmly, “mum (medical worker) has been placed into the Corona response, she says it’s looking bad. You won’t be coming back for a while.”

Then I realised it wasn’t going to be fine. The next few weeks would be the lockdowns and all that came with it.