In last year’s Christmas article, I spoke about how I’d never felt less Christmassy. Little did I know what was about to engulf us. The Chinese whispers of a flu-like disease were still just that, and our greatest concern was if Keith Schembri would find his phone. As the classic saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. What I would like to do today is share my takings on a year which is sure to leave a mark on us forever.

It is important not to take things for granted: One of the things which I have missed the most is just being able to leave the house and not worry. It almost seems perversely subversive to do that now. Ironically, most of the time, I don’t worry that I will become ill myself, but rather that I will infect others without knowing.

It’s strange to distrust your own body and it makes you feel displaced. I wasn’t very big on human contact before this pandemic but now that I am unable to hug people, I am reminded of why babies need touch in order to be able to develop properly. I will never take an embrace for granted again.

Bad times are teaching times: This last year has brought out both the worst in people and the best, but at the end of the day, it has shown us the truth. There were always those who were worth our time and those who weren’t, but the pandemic really acted as a catalyst and sped up processes that had been dragging for years.

I’ve heard stories of people finally finding the courage to break up with someone after being boxed in with them for days. I’ve heard stories of friendships falling apart over innocuous things. The truth is it’s never just one straw which breaks a camel’s back, it’s all the straw which came before it. If COVID has done anything, it’s taught us that life is far shorter and unpredictable than we were led to believe.

We need to understand how important our individual behaviour is and the impact it has on society- Anna Marie Galea

We need to be more conscious of the suffering and vulnerability of others: COVID reminded us of the importance of community. For too long we had gone our separate ways, heads bent listening to our own music and ignoring the outside world. The irony of ironies was that for this pandemic not to spread, we had to care enough about those who were more vulnerable than us. Many passed this test, but a great number didn’t.

The number of times I saw people dismissing the old and sick in comments as dispensable never stopped turning my stomach. The debates about the vaccine keep raging on even though there is literally no other way for us to combat this. We need to understand how important our individual behaviour is and the impact it has on society. No man is an island.

We should expect more from our leaders: We vote for certain people based on the belief that they can lead and do what’s best for the country. This means that they need to have the ability to plan and not let ego and money get in the way of making sound decisions. There were many things which could have been done better this year, and in many cases, the tools to make the right decisions were already in hand but pushed under the carpet in favour of being “positive”. Well, I’d rather be a realist and not fighting for my life.

Here’s hoping next Christmas will be a more positive one for all of us. Happy Christmas!