Blonde hair, hazel eyes, vaccinated!

If you had told me one year ago that a 7 minute window of my day would symbolically mark the beginning of the end for SARS-CoV-2, I would have choked on my chai. On the 4th of March 2021, I drove 6 minutes to my local vaccination centre, walked in, and mere moments later, I walked out. It was one of the most surreal yet poignant moments of my life. The NHS staff, as ever, expertly and caringly administered my first dose of AstraZeneca with smiles on their faces. I stood in no queues. And within seven minutes of entering the building, I was jumping back in my car, gripping a collection of information pamphlets about the dose of chimpanzee flu that was now working its way through my body, ready to give me a very rough few days. While I’m not exactly desperate to relive the vaccination migraine which ensued, the side effects didn’t for one second, not even remotely, negate the overwhelming excitement and gratitude that the vaccination has left me with.

In a time where popping over to my local testing centre has become so routine I can incorporate the full covid-19 testing experience into a coffee run (a mere 5 minute walk from my house, in the park no less), it’s almost unfathomable that soon, testing could become a thing of the past. Now having fully recovered from the mini-flu, I’m right back to obsessing about when I’ll get my date for a second dose. Seeing those around me rapidly receive their first doses, too, just reaffirms to me that change is on the horizon. One whole year of lockdowns in London has been brutal, to say the least. It feels pretty special to witness one of sciences greatest accomplishments alongside such effective implementation of the vaccine roll out programme. After so much has been lost and so much has been postponed, I think that 2021 may be about to turn things around. And until my second dose, I’ll be daydreaming of finally rekindling with all the places I’ve missed, and touching all the faces of the people I love and who have been so distance for a whole year. Friends, family and places that feel like home. They’re finally feeling closer than ever.