It’s unbelievable that tonight is New Year’s Eve. Wasn’t it just January last month? This year felt devastatingly long and yet supernaturally quick. It was certainly the most interesting time of my life, and I’m sure most people who didn’t live through the Depression would say the same. Looking back now, I have such a mixed bag of emotions. The juxtaposition of being gut-wrenchingly miserable and to experience the single greatest moment of my life all in the past 12 months is quite the enigma.
2020 was financially devastating and emotionally taxing. Tensions ran high, morale was low, and hope was on the verge of becoming extinct. Businesses closed. People lost loved ones; we lost people close to us. Not a single one of us got through this year without experiencing some form of hardship, heartache, or grief. Everyone’s plans got canceled. All of our itineraries were erased.
Once summer came around, and most of us accepted and acclimated to our new normal, things started to get better. It wasn’t doom and gloom 24/7. Slowly, the world began to open up again and there was light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. The plans we had made this year were rescheduled for next year, and that made us feel optimistic. 2020 taught us to be flexible, to be patient.
The things I was most looking forward to that didn’t happen include: a trip to NYC with my best friend to see Moulin Rouge on Broadway, a They Might Be Giants concert for the 30th anniversary of Flood, and my beloved Woollybear Festival in Vermilion, Ohio (look it up; it’s quite possibly the most Ohio thing to ever exist).
Reviewing these past 52 weeks, I definitely see more good than bad. Before everything shut down, we were able to take a trip to California to visit my uncles in Palm Springs. We went whale watching in San Diego. In March, literally the last day before everything closed, my mom and best friend and I were able to attend the very last showing of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Playhouse, and I’ll never not be grateful for that special memory we now all share.
Being out of work gave me time to focus on things that helped me immensely both mentally and physically. I was able to devote some time each morning to my meditation practice, something I’ve been promising myself I would do for years. I was able to work out almost every day because we are fortunate enough to have a home gym in our basement. My husband and I watched 256 movies. I read 53 books, double the number of what I set my goal to be for the year, and more than I’ve ever read in that amount of time. I got to spend Thanksgiving with my dad. We haven’t spent the holidays together in 17 years, so that was a huge deal.
Obviously, and most importantly, the event that makes 2020 the greatest year ever also happens to be the single most magnificent, impressive thing I have ever done in my life: giving birth to my son. It was the wildest time to be pregnant, but aside from having to fly solo to prenatal appointments, constant COVID testing, and a crippling fear that I would have to deliver without my husband by my side, everything did work out. I plan on writing about my experiences and what it was like to be pregnant during a global pandemic soon.
So was this year arduous? Undoubtedly. Was it a struggle almost the entire 12 months? I would have to say yes. It will live on in infamy in our memories, making us shudder at the recollections it elicits. But again, the amount of good that grew out of this year for me really overshadows the bad, and in 2020 that’s almost unheard of. This year has made me focus on what is important, appreciate the things that surround me, and know that every day the sun will come up and life will go on indefinitely.
Collectively we kept saying, “If we can make it to the end of the year, everything will be okay.” Well, here we are, watching the clock tick towards midnight to close out the first year of the ‘20s, and I couldn’t feel more hopeful about the future. I choose to have faith that things will keep getting better. I believe the darkness is receding. I wish that whoever reads this remains positive and I pray that 2021 is the marvelous year we all so desperately deserve. Happy New Year!!
Sarah Says 