The Several Shades of Lockdown

WORDS BY Madeena Rohaizad @deena.rohaizad

ART BY Adrienne Aw @illustrations_awy

You may have heard of the lockdown blues, but thanks to TikTok there’s a new colour tinting our once-achromatic routines. The ‘Follow the Color’ trend encourages spontaneity in our generally structured lives, asking us to choose a colour and simply follow it. This colour influences our actions and choices for the day, and thus breaks up an otherwise monotonous routine. As someone who has found themselves in a bit of a slump during Lockdown 6.0, I felt that this was a recurring trend for me, so I decided to switch things up. That’s why, on the 27th of August 2021, I let purple run my day.

7:30am In classic uni student fashion, I awake dreading my first morning class, and snooze my alarm several times to lie in bed for an extra hour. Though today, I’m tasked with a new mission: to follow the colour. As indecisiveness kicks in, I contemplate every colour in sight. Should I follow yellow, or maybe green? As I consider the logistics of each colour and severely overthink my decision, I hop on Instagram and it’s like the universe knew my dilemma… it’s Wear It Purple Day! 9:38am As I emerge from my room, I head to the kitchen, scrolling through my feed and researching Wear it Purple Day. A day for advocating the LGBTIQA+ community, it represents awareness, opportunity, environment and collaboration. These are all things I’m strongly passionate about, so purple has become a non-negotiable for today. Scouring the kitchen for something purple, I reach for my purple ‘Stardew Valley’ mug and make some tea. While I’m admittedly a coffee fiend, the mug is purple and says ‘tea’. I enjoy it alongside some toast smothered with purple grape jam. Now content with my choices, I head to my Zoom tutorial. 12:35pm After my only class for the day, I’m ready to keep following the purple. Looking down at my attire — my usual mismatched PJ’s — I figure that dressing the part is a good place to start, and it is Wear It Purple Day, after all. Finding something purple in my wardrobe proves difficult. Realising purple really is not my colour, I settle on the only purple items I can find: a lilac satin skirt and fitted purple tank, which is definitely an upgrade from my usual lockdown attire. 2:45pm Apart from choosing my outfit for today, there has admittedly been a lack of purple elsewhere. But I mean, Cinderella had ‘til midnight to return from the ball. That’s when my day of following the purple is saved by an unlikely hero: my mother. She informs me that we’re out of laundry detergent, so I am now tasked with a mission to secure the goods and locate the purple. 3:00pm As I enter my car, I spot my purple Bluetooth speaker nestled in the cupholder. IT’S A SIGN! Who better to listen to on my journey than the queen of purple herself, Ms. Olivia Rodrigo? 3:15pm After 15 minutes of singing about exes I don’t have, I arrive at my local shopping centre on the hunt for purple. Upon entering Woolies, I spy my target: the laundry detergent. While sadly, the brand I’ve been tasked to buy is not purple, the occupants of the aisle are. Standing masked and socially distanced, I listen to a young girl in a bright purple PAW Patrol shirt chatter away about the picnic she’s going to have. 3:45pm I return home from my trip, now ready for my next mission: a purple picnic. When inspiration hit me during my shopping trip, I purchased several purple snacks, and am now ready to do the purple shirt girl justice. I set myself up in my own backyard with a cosy purple blanket, and some snacks. After my picnic, I spend the rest of the day working on an assignment — while it isn’t much of a change, I do feel like following a colour has an impact! Life in lockdown can feel monotonous, and it is trends like these that keep things interesting. ‡