David Campbell: Today Extra host on the lessons we learned in 2020

The Today Extra host refuses to feel nostalgic about the year that was, but there are lessons we’ve all learned that he hopes will last forever.

We did it, you guys. We made it to the end of, seriously, one of the worst years on record. (And I’m including the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs in my hyperbolic statement. I realise that was a pretty bad one, too.)

Like many of you, I don’t really want to do a recap. I reckon we should just pretend like this shocker never happened. We could just go from 2019 in our calendars and roll straight to 2021.

Sure, we all lose a year, but we also skip a birthday, making us a whole year younger than what is on our birth certificates. Let’s all agree: this is fine.

“I reckon we should just pretend like this shocker never happened.” (Picture: Daniel Nadel)

As the song goes, “Should auld acquaintance be forgot.” So, let’s forget 2020, shall we?

I don’t mean to make light of this. It has been horrible for so many of us.

Let us not forget that it took a massive effort from Victoria and many others who endured lockdowns, quarantines and missed out on so many milestones. Weddings shrunk. Year 12 almost delayed. I simply wish, like we all do, none of this ever happened.

So as this year comes to an end, I wonder, what do I want? As the pandemic finds its second and third waves overseas, what can we possibly say as the New Year’s Eve clock creeps toward midnight?

I have a wish. Not so much a Christmas wish; I want this one to last for at least 12 months. We deserve it.

“I have also seen our country band together in a way I would never have thought possible.” (Picture: Steven Chee)

I wish for some parts of the new normal to last, like rigorous hand-washing and social-distancing in places with lots of people. Masks in flu season. Most doctors and armchair epidemiologists agree: these are great new practices for us to adopt permanently.

Maybe cold-and-flu season will then become less of an expense for our nation and our businesses. Unless, of course, your business is Codral, then, soldier on!

I have also seen our country band together in a way I would never have thought possible. Twitter was wrong. We are not broken and partisan. When push comes to shove, we can think of one another and not just ourselves. We can drink from that cup of kindness yet.

Please don’t think I want it all to stay. As I have said before, bring back the lost jobs and industries. Let’s all get back to theatres, cinemas, gigs and the footy – I’ll wear a mask with my Swannies colours on it.

We have gone through a crisis here on Planet Earth. In many ways it feels like rock bottom. But ask any person who has hit that zone: there is only one way out. And that is up!

David Campbell features in this Sunday’s Stellar.

Next year is a new year. A new era. We can collectively decide to continue moving forward, trusting one another to pull each other through the bad times if we need and reaching back to help others, as we have this year. Listening to the experts and scientists. Listening to one another more.

For this year will soon be the “old time”. The ‘Auld Lang Syne’. We will not completely forget it like the song suggests, because it has brought us together. So, let’s sing the song and ring in the New Year. Let’s remember to forget 2020.

David co-hosts Today Extra, 9am Monday to Friday, on the Nine Network.

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