ONE of the few things I have enjoyed about the stay at home requirements in the state has been finding new ways to catch up with my friends.
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As I have previously stated, I’m a massive pro-wrestling (WWE) fan.
Say what you will about it, I’ve heard it all before, and it truly doesn’t bother me at all.
I enjoy what I enjoy – and you should enjoy what you enjoy too.
Anyway, I’m in stage three lockdown here, my friend Sean lives in the city in Melbourne and as such is in stage four.
My friend Max is in this weird stage two limbo in Tassie, and has been joined by our friend Joel who has just moved back from Western Australia.
Back when we were fresh out of school we’d regularly get together and watch WWE’s monthly specials, but as we all moved apart, this stopped.
However, in a weird coincidence, lockdown part one had recently begun when the major show, WrestleMania, aired for the year.
Since we were all stuck inside doing nothing, we decided we should run a Discord call and watch the show.
As always, it was pretty quickly a group of friends just making jokes at each other’s expense, which it had to be with us, but the afternoon was a lot of fun.
Since then, we have watched every major show.
Pretty quickly what we were actually watching stopped being important, it was purely about enjoying each other’s company.
I really like to think this crisis will cause many of us to examine our friendships and who we spend time with.
It's unfortunately a very natural part of life where as we get older, move away and begin new stages of our lives, we grow apart from people.
Even those who have meant a great deal to us during our lifetimes sometimes just fall out of life.
Sad, yes.
But these things happen, and I think we all know it.
But, if you're anything like me, you may have taken the time during this lockdown to try and reconnect with those people.
Maybe it's just a phone call, an email, sending photos of your dogs on Facebook, something small, but it's nice to try and reconnect.
You never know just how much you have missed someone's company until you make contact with them again.
And you don't know what it's going to mean to them.
So, since we are all separated by different levels of restrictions (and Bass Strait) for the time being, this will be the way we do things for a while I'd imagine.
But I wouldn't change it.
And I hope we continue to do it well past the end of all this chaos.
So, open your phone tonight, find someone you haven't spoken to in a long time and dial.
If they don't pick up, try another time.
Hopefully you have a great conversation.
ISOLATION DIARIES
Isolation diaries part 10: baby steps
Isolation diaries part nine: homeward bound
Isolation diaries part eight: hitting the books
Isolation diaries part seven: COVID-free, lockdown bound
Isolation diaries part six: How a runny nose led to a COVID-19 test
Isolation diaries part five: Greetings from Echuca
Isolation diaries part four: what a Tangled web I weave
Isolation diaries part three: Free as a curve-flattening bird
Sports journalist