2020

So, it’s October. Somehow we’ve made it to the final stretch of this tumultuous year and were living (or surviving - pick yours) to tell the tale. I stopped the whole ‘well, that’s 2020 for you’ textbook reaction to bad news a while ago, finding it too reductive and ‘omen-y’. Instead, I’ve replaced it with a casual ‘you never know’ to every wild 2020 prediction. I had a classic Carrie moment recently, and couldn’t help but wonder, what is 2020? Like, what are the overarching themes that have made this year so transformative?

 I know the elephant in the room is Covid-19. Normality shattering and ruthless -affecting everyone at varying degrees. Oh, and the fight for equality, justice, anti-racism, and the literal dismantling of the system. Not forgetting the emergence of our climate crisis and the multiple (terrifying) times this year that our globe has been on fire. 2020 called upon us to emphasise, educate and express gratitude. To acknowledge our surroundings and our role in society - like, really pay attention. It’s done all of this while simultaneously calling on us to grieve, to be rudely awakened and challenged - to seek solutions, to go to war with ourselves and sometimes others. 

2020 birthed new ways of living in a relatively short timeframe. It’s unapologetically torn people down and forced us to actually look in the mirror. This bitch really gave us nowhere to hide. I, like many of us, have spent a large portion of this year complaining. I complained of discomfort and how my ‘plans’ were ruined. I complained about the changes; I was too accustomed to the normal order of business (the shit one). I’ve slowly realised that zooming in on the negative aspects this year left me with no room to see the positive. It’s too easy to be so focused on what you’re losing that you completely fail to recognise what you’re gaining. You may not even think you’ve gained at all, maybe because you really, really didn’t want to lose - or because you feel you have nothing to show for your ‘gain’. Unfortunately, gains are so readily associated with physical, tangible assets or accomplishments that we forget the subtlety and unconscious element to it. 

You could have gained a new perspective or realised new goals. Maybe you finally know what you don’t like or want, what works for you and what doesn’t - in turn, regaining a stronger sense of self. Maybe you’ve gained something that you may never even realise. Still, whether we realise it or not, many of us have unknowingly gained a spirit of resilience.

This year, so far, we’ve been uncomfortable. But let’s equate discomfort with growth, and go from there. Everything’s changing, but we all know it wasn’t working for most of us (and the planet) before now, so we’ll see how this plays out. You might actually be feeling good. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and feeling hopeful. And that is so, so great. A lot of us are still anxious, tired, confused, stressed out, and deflated. And that is so, so normal. You’ve dragged yourself this far for a reason, and if 2020 has taught us one thing - it’s that life is incredibly unpredictable. So, don’t write it all off too soon because, well, you never know.