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Looking back on 2020 : What do we take away from it and what should we expect next year?

20 Dec 2020

  By Patrick de Kretser Let us all just take some time to genuinely reflect on the year that we went through. I understand that many of us would have already done that multiple times by now, owing to how unique this year has been due to the global pandemic, but we really need to take into account now how things are going to look next year for us and what we should expect. Three months ago, we did not know how long this pandemic might have lasted. We dreaded the possibility of expecting it to carry on for years and we came to expect that we were not going to be able to resume our normal lives for a long time. Luckily, however, things are looking a little more positive than they were a few months back. There is genuine optimism that the vaccine is soon to get released, and with it, normalcy to some degree would return as well. So while we wait with cautious optimism for that date to approach, I want to spend a little time talking about what lies ahead for us and how we should adjust to it. We all came into this year expecting it to go like any other. Most of us expected to take the next step in our academic journeys the same way we had many years prior. Many of us might have had aspirations of going abroad to study and work, which got cancelled or postponed indefinitely due to the global crisis at hand. The bottom line is, the year certainly did not go the way we expected it to go. And that is something I hardly need to remind everybody about, because we have already been reminded of it on countless occasions from all the pain and hardships we have had to endure this year. We have been living in the “pandemic world” for so long that many of us are starting to forget what life was like before the coronavirus hit. Perhaps the last line may have come across as a bit overdramatic, but it certainly is not far from the truth. While some of us might have adapted well to the pandemic and kept ourselves in a positive headspace throughout the whole ordeal, most of us arguably did not. And honestly, sometimes it does not matter how often you read articles or listen to something on YouTube that tells you how to stay positive in a time like this, because nothing ends up helping you feel better about yourself at the end of the day. The loneliness, the despair, and the desperation that we might have experienced this year has probably contributed a great deal towards unproductivity and complacency. We felt hopeless and lost, so therefore, we found it hard to study or find the motivation to do any productive work, which made us feel even worse about ourselves. But the most important thing to remember is that none of this is anything that you need to feel bad for. You do not have to regret wasting time this year or feeling like you let yourself down by not being stronger to cope with what 2020 has thrown at you, because it is perfectly normal to have setbacks. For example, I can easily share with you now that I certainly was one of those people. 2020 was a year that made me run high with emotions for much of the time. Most of what I had planned to do this year had been cancelled and therefore, I started feeling like I was behind schedule and that I had not achieved anything noteworthy that got me closer to my goals in life. The setback was something that made me feel quite uneasy with myself, especially with regards to not knowing what the future was going to bring. But I can confidently tell you now that any setback I faced this year, only made me realise how normal it was to feel this way. We should not look back at 2020 as a failure. We should look back on it for what it actually is – an anomaly. 2020 was an anomaly that came through no fault of our own. We had no control over what was happening in the world and we certainly should not beat ourselves up for suffering the consequences of that catastrophe.  While we gaze into the crystal ball of 2021 and wonder what we should expect, we should remember to approach it with optimism and belief. The year ahead of us certainly will not be the same as 2020. Granted, perhaps the coronavirus pandemic will still carry on to next year and there might be disruptions here and there in our lives as a result of lockdown, but the news everywhere around the world is slowly becoming more optimistic, as we move closer to a cure that might reintroduce the normal lifestyle that we have all missed for so very long. With that being said, we should remember that when we set our targets for next year, we ought to do more with what we have and make the most out of the opportunities we are presented. Because ultimately, 2020 was a year lacking opportunities, and it will not be the same next year. At the very least, we should not see it that way. Life is full of setbacks and this time around, it was a setback that the whole world had to face together. Perhaps there is a certain benefit to that in hindsight. We all faced a crisis that made us relate with each other and understand what we were all going through. There must have been countless articles written for Happinez during this lengthy period which spoke about how we should cope with this pandemic and what we should do while this pandemic is going on. I remember writing quite a few of these articles myself, where I explained the importance of managing ourselves and putting in that little bit of effort so that we do not keep ourselves trapped in that dark and scary place in our heads. But now that the year is ending, the narrative has changed. We should no longer be wondering about how we should cope with things as we move into next year; we should be looking at how we are going to achieve a lot and make the most out of what we have. There are a few quotes by several notable figures which explain perfectly what it is that 2020 has done to us and how it has prepared us for the new year ahead. I thought this would be a brilliant way to end the article, so hopefully what I have shared with you below will inspire you to really go all out next year and achieve everything that you want to achieve. “Sometimes when you’re in a dark place, you think you’ve been buried, but you’ve actually been planted” – Activist, author, and motivational speaker Christine Caine “One setback is one setback. It is not the end of the world”  – Personal trainer, author, and businesswoman Jillian Michaels “It’s hard to be clear about who you are when you are carrying around a bunch of baggage from your past. I’ve learned to let go and move quickly to the next place”  – Academy Award winning actress Angelina Jolie  PHOTOS New Year Images, Itl.cat, Stocksy United, Wallpaperflare, HipWallpaper  


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