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Collected Item: “Happy 21st”

Give your story a title.

Happy 21st

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

This is a photograph of a vase filled with dying flowers and a helium balloon with "21" on it. It is in my bedroom in Melbourne.

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

HIST30060
A person’s 21st birthday (whilst not as big a deal in Australia as other countries) is still considered an important milestone. I, like many other people in Melbourne, had the pleasure of experiencing my 21st birthday in lockdown. Friends were not invited. Family could not visit. Instead, I spent the day at home with only myself, my sister and my dog. I feel like this picture accurately represents what the time was like. Dead. Not literally, of course, but life had grinded to a halt during this period. And yet, that day was one of my happiest. Maybe because it gave an excuse for people to contact me. A theme I think runs through a lot of the pandemic. Because we could not meet physically, social interaction through technology became a lot more prevalent. And who doesn’t love being sent cupcakes?

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

#birthday, #21st, #flowers

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Alyssa Morgan

Give this story a date.

2020-11-04
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