I was scratching my head at this conundrum that I was facing.

How do I actually pack a suit for travel? I could carry it in its dedicated bag but realised what a chore it was to do that. I would have had to carry my suitcase, my backpack and a suit bag all together as I travel around from place to place.

I decided to research on how to fold a suit correctly as to not leave any creases and make sure the padding is still well maintained. After trying several times and spending almost half an hour, I finally got it. Folded it perfectly and chucked it into the suitcase. I was now ready to fly to Singapore.

As it was mid September, flight prices were reasonable but regardless, I think a good friend’s wedding is more important than the price anyway. On the way there, I stopped by Malaysia for a day so that I can see my parents and hopefully able to see my uncle for a bit.

Earlier in the year, my dad broke the news to my sister and I that our uncle was diagnosed with nose cancer, and that it has spread to the spine. I thought it might be good to visit him.

My parents and I waited in one of the Nyonya dessert restaurants in Mid Valley for a bit and soon after, my uncle and aunty arrived. I have to say he didn’t look too different at first. Maybe a little slower in movement, and a little fatigued, but looked relatively fine for someone who has already been through three chemotherapy sessions. I think it’s the alternating between recovery and chemo that gets to you. You have to recover and make sure your body is ready before doing chemo, but after doing chemo, your body gets tired and the cycle repeats all over again.

Nevertheless, I was glad to see him and actually made the trip. I don’t have that many uncles and aunties. And maybe that’s why I’m more appreciative of the time I have with any of them. I never got to see my paternal grandfather and uncle as they passed away before I was born. Over my life, my grandmothers, grandfather and another uncle have also passed. As my extended family becomes smaller and smaller, I feel that any time being able to spent with them is precious.

The next day, I flew to Singapore and joined up with my friends. There were about 11 of us from Sydney attending our friend’s wedding, which is crazily massive! Needless to say, we had a really good time at the wedding. It was like a weekend getaway with some good friends.

It was a simpler time then. A time where we didn’t have to think twice before flying to another country and able to visit our families freely.

Because as of 31st December 2019, everything changed.

News broke out of China that there was a new virus, labelled the coronavirus. There were dozens of people affected. The situation escalated quickly, with multiple carriers leaving Wuhan to other places, transmitting the virus in the process, prompting the lockdown of Wuhan and a global emergency.

Suddenly, the world had a new enemy. Anyone with black hair, dark eyes and yellow skin was now considered a potential carrier or transmitter. Each cough or sneeze sent trembles up people’s spines.

Don’t go to Chinese restaurants. Don’t go Chinatown. Don’t go to Chinese suburbs.

But it didn’t stop there. More and more cases started popping up globally.

Philippines, Japan, France, South Korea, Singapore, Iran, Italy, United States to name a few.

Stock markets suffered huge significant losses. Supermarkets were cleared out. People were fighting over toilet rolls.

The world became its own enemy.

I would be lying to you if I told you I didn’t fear at all or thought about this. That I didn’t ask my sister to buy some non-perishable foods. That I’m not washing my hands everywhere I go. That I’m not scared of a potential pandemic. Because I am.

I too, am scared.

But as I’m sitting here with these thoughts of fear running through my head, I ask myself, why am I exactly scared? Why are people in a panic?

Perhaps it’s a combination of disinformation, social media outbursts, social proof and fragile mortality that has created this concoction of chaos and hysteria. And maybe, it’s because we fear the unknown, that uncomfortable and haunting feeling where you do not know what is going to happen.

But we are never going to solve this problem by becoming more selfish or by having a “every man for himself” mentality. In a period of Brexit and Trump-isms, where messages of bigotry and hate fuels the common rhetoric, we shouldn’t distance ourselves apart even more. If anything, it calls for more compassion, more kindness and more empathy. And that doesn’t require you shaking hands or hugging each other. Love is boundless and it will find a way to diffuse through in spite of physical distances.

And yes, the pandemic will happen sooner or later and that it’s just a matter of time but until it happens to you, it hasn’t. We are overly worrying about something that has yet to happen when there are so many people already struggling so much in the present.

People lost their homes and loved ones in the recent bushfires. Pensioners are losing money as we speak from the superannuation because of the market crash. Mental health illness is still prevalent. Kids don’t have homes. We still face issues of racism and sexism.

My uncle is still battling with his nose cancer, still trying to make it one day at a time.

And yet, we worry about tomorrow when we should be valuing any time we have with our families and friends. When we should care for them. To not take things like being able to fly back home or attending a friend’s wedding for granted.

As Jon Foreman said, ‘maybe fear is love’s true opposite’. Maybe we should wash our hands regularly not because we are scared of other people’s germs but because we are scared others will get our germs. Let love guide you through this.

It’s an extraordinary situation in an extraordinary time.

Stand up.

Be brave.

And hope.

Hope and trust in the medical professionals who are putting themselves on the front lines every single day for us.

Hope that a vaccine may be found.

Hope that our humanity may thrive in this adversity.

Hope for simpler times to return again where the most worrying thing about travelling, was how to pack a suit.