Thanks 2020!

2020 has been a year none of us will ever forget. A year where our social patterns changed. From how the food is delivered at the footsteps of our houses to having a limited number of people that can assist the funeral of a loved one. There is no doubt what has happened in 2020 will become a story to tell our kids and grandkids in the upcoming decades.

I hadn’t fully realized the scar this year has left on us until New Year’s Eve when I saw countless posts on social media where people expressed how over they were about 2020. Moreover, I could not avoid noticing the context in which most social posts referred to this atypical year. The gloomy perception expressed through social media by most people made me wonder why I was not feeling the same way. The truth is, even though I went through the tragedies and misfortunes, which not only happened to me but also to my family, close friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, I arrived at a different conclusion, a more optimistic one, I believe.

Thus, the purpose of this article, where I intend to awake a sense of victory and resilience we should all feel after going through this tough year. We all have been mentally and physically challenged in different ways we would have never thought of, and that’s something we should be proud of.

2020 was a year that has made us a witness of how fragile we are as species. Consequently, making us not take for granted our health nor the health of our loved ones.

2020 was a year that has made us understand that money does not make us untouchable. Diseases do not take into account our social status nor how many figures are in our saving accounts. Thus, understanding money is not as relevant as we believed it was.

2020 was a year that has made us realize how self-focus we were. We tended to think problems and adversities only happened to us. Nonetheless, the quarantine has helped us acknowledge that each one of us has our own battles to fight. Hence, we have understood to not take personal if we feel that our loved ones are not prioritizing our problems. They have their problems to take care of as well.

2020 was a year that has made us value the small things that we had taken for granted for a long time. For example, the freedom of taking a walk at the park right next to our house, which we had never done because “we were too busy”.

2020 was a year that has made us more empathic. It has allowed us to feel compassion for those who need helps. We have extended our support to our elderly neighbors that we used to see every day without acknowledging them.

2020 was a year that has made us feel lucky to have the job that we have complained about so much. On the other hand, for those who have lost a job, such drastic change might have come useful to reconsider if you were working on something that really made you happy.

2020 was a year that has sparked our creativeness, making us discover how to entertain ourselves without the social distractions that used to consume our weekends. It has allowed us to get to know ourselves better when feeling bored instead of filling the void with distractions.

2020 was a year that has been the cause of many broken relationships. The problems and stressful situations that faced each couple through the quarantine allowed them to test their affinity to deal with the difficulties that life brings unexpectedly. Even though breaking up a relationship is not something to be happy about, be thankful that the quarantine allowed you to fast-forward the time it would have taken both of you to test that affinity as a couple. On the other hand, 2020 has also been a year that has strengthened relationships. Hence, making them feel prepared to officialize their union by getting married.

2020 was a year that has made us understand happiness is to be found within ourselves and not in material things. We now understand how those small gratifications that fulfilled our daily desires covered unconformities that we didn’t realize were there. For example, buying unnecessary things or spending most of our free time surrounded by friends might not have allowed us to realize that we were not happy with a particular area of our life.

2020 was a year that has made us realize how most of the situations we complained about were either superficial or had solutions, which were in our control to solve. Therefore, they were not a reason to make us unhappy but to provoke us to take action. Also, for those unexpected problems we didn’t have control over, we have learned how to deal with them.

2020 was a year that has tested and improved our patience. Sharing the same space with our partner, family, or friends have allowed us to learn how to relate better with them. On the other hand, for those living alone, this has been a year that has made us appreciate the company of our loved ones even more as well the quietness in our homes that has allowed us to get to know ourselves better.

2020 has been a year where we have learned new skills and have adopted new habits that we didn’t know the positive impact that they could have on our lives. Habits such as exercising, meditating, and reading has demonstrated the strong influence they can have on our mental and physical health.

To conclude, 2020 is a year that has marked a before and an after to each one of us in every aspect of our lives. Most of us are not going to be the same after 2020 neither we are going to look back at life the same way we used to. I believe we have a long way ahead before things get back the way they used to be if we ever get back to how things were. Still, I hope you find yourself optimistic after feeling identified with some of the things we all have achieved during 2020 that you didn’t have realized before.

I want to avoid the notion that 2021 will be a year where everything goes back to normal. On the contrary, 2021 might still bring more misfortunes and difficult situations to some of us. However, I believe after being mentally and physically challenged through 2020, we all have gained the strength and skills that will help us to go through 2021 better than we did last year.

2020, thanks for teaching us in such a short time so many valuable lessons that we might have never gotten to experience.

2020, thanks for reminding us how fragile and vulnerable we are and why we should all be grateful for being alive.

2020, thanks for reminding us that we can be happy with very little and without the need to be surrounded by luxury and material things.

Let’s make 2021 count.