Australia’s border hardened stance has created a culture of asylum prevention, providing a rationale for the use of defence and security as the core argument to prevent asylum seeker protection. Drawing on ethnographic research undertaken with Tamil asylum seekers and refugees from Sri Lanka in Australia, this Field Note showcases the percussive impacts of border policy on lived experiences. I do this by elevating the subjective lens, narrating an encounter with one of my interlocutors to provide insights into the process of meaning-making and explore how everyday life is negotiated amid ongoing upheaval and protracted insecurity. This piece illuminates some of the structural and symbolic barriers preventing safety, stability and a sense of belonging for asylum seekers in Australia along with highlighting the intimate, mundane and practical ways that daily life is performed, despite these restrictions.