2020 Reflections

2020 was quite a year for joy and loss, wasn’t it?  As usual at the start of a new year it makes me reflect on the previous year, that will be forever ingrained in my memory.

Not just because our world changed faster than I could have ever imagined, or that friends and family were suddenly taken from my life, or that I had to navigate teaching online when I’d never trained for it.  It will forever stay with me for the lessons I learned and for the joys and sorrows that became a new norm.

While everyone posts memes and talks about how awful 2020 was and they cannot wait for 2021, I understand these sentiments but don’t quite feel the same.  I am eager for a new year, but 2020 changed my life forever and I want to acknowledge that and to appreciate that I’m a different person because of it.

I never wanted to be isolated from the life I loved of traveling, meeting friends for coffee and hunting for books in any bookstore I came across.  I never planned to work from home, wear a mask everywhere, have zoom calls instead of real meetings.

But guess what? I learned that I can survive and even thrive- in the absence of what I loved because I learned how to adapt and find new joys in the process.

I still miss the life I once knew, but I have a life I love and I’m rejoicing in the fact that there are still friends and family who remain an active part of it, that I have a little family of my own to care for and love on.

Dear friends, thank you for sticking around with me this year and encouraging me with your kindness. I am so grateful for you all.