So far, this year has been everything I did not expect. I expected 2020 to be about flying cars and upgrading our brains to X-ray vision. Instead, there were world war threats, a pandemic and a civil rights crisis. As if the calendar had mistaken this year for 1920. Imagine if somebody had told you on New Year’s Eve what this year had in store for us. Imagine somebody telling you as the clock struck twelve that this year we’d see forest fires, Kim Yong Un faking his own death, killer-hornets, a months-long quarantine and having to explain to people that racism is a bad thing, again? You probably wouldn’t have believed it and if you did, you would probably have been panicking, thinking we wouldn’t make it through this year. However, as I am writing this, we’re almost halfway and looking back, we have gotten through it surprisingly well.
Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely not saying that these past few months have been a blast. Devastating things have happened. Many have lost their loved ones to a deadly virus, lost their homes, their livelihoods and dreams were crushed. I have seen the most horrendous things and heard the most heartbreaking stories. From ann elderly couple who were separated after spending decades together to images of children crying, scared of what would happen to them because of the color of their skin. It has been more than once that my eyes were filled with tears of anger and sadness while scrolling through the news and social media timelines.
However, my eyes have been filled with tears of joy at least as many times, overwhelmed with feelings of love and empowerment. Every heartbreaking story, every infuriating video, every distressing event, got balanced out by a group of people feeling the same way, doing everything in their power to make sure it would never happen again. Either kneeling with a fist in the air protesting for human rights, or with an iPad in hand, trying to reconnect loved ones. The world collected money for Australia, took care of their neighbors during the corona crisis and fought for their brothers and sisters in peaceful protesting. While everyone had to keep their distance, people all over the world seemed to be closer than ever.
This year has been everything I did not expect. No flying cars or X-ray vision, but clear skies and revolutions. Nobody could have seen this coming at the beginning of this year and if we had, and we would have actually believed it, we would have thought we would never make it through. However, so far, we did. The past few months have shown us, once again, how capable we are at adjusting to anything that gets thrown our way. Or that we stand up, set aside our differences for a while and fight together if what gets thrown our way is unacceptable. People tend to be scared of the unknown, but at the same time have a talent for dealing with it. We know how to shape and familiarize ourselves with the outcome. Maybe that’s the best thing about the future being unknown: if we don’t like what we’ve gotten used to, we can always change the present and hope for something better in the future.
So far, this year has been everything I did not expect. I expected 2020 to be about flying cars and upgrading our brains to X-ray vision. Instead, there were world war threats, a pandemic and a civil rights crisis. As if the calendar had mistaken this year for 1920. Imagine if somebody had told you on New Year’s Eve what this year had in store for us. Imagine somebody telling you as the clock struck twelve that this year we’d see forest fires, Kim Yong Un faking his own death, killer-hornets, a months-long quarantine and having to explain to people that racism is a bad thing, again? You probably wouldn’t have believed it and if you did, you would probably have been panicking, thinking we wouldn’t make it through this year. However, as I am writing this, we’re almost halfway and looking back, we have gotten through it surprisingly well.
Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely not saying that these past few months have been a blast. Devastating things have happened. Many have lost their loved ones to a deadly virus, lost their homes, their livelihoods and dreams were crushed. I have seen the most horrendous things and heard the most heartbreaking stories. From ann elderly couple who were separated after spending decades together to images of children crying, scared of what would happen to them because of the color of their skin. It has been more than once that my eyes were filled with tears of anger and sadness while scrolling through the news and social media timelines.
However, my eyes have been filled with tears of joy at least as many times, overwhelmed with feelings of love and empowerment. Every heartbreaking story, every infuriating video, every distressing event, got balanced out by a group of people feeling the same way, doing everything in their power to make sure it would never happen again. Either kneeling with a fist in the air protesting for human rights, or with an iPad in hand, trying to reconnect loved ones. The world collected money for Australia, took care of their neighbors during the corona crisis and fought for their brothers and sisters in peaceful protesting. While everyone had to keep their distance, people all over the world seemed to be closer than ever.
This year has been everything I did not expect. No flying cars or X-ray vision, but clear skies and revolutions. Nobody could have seen this coming at the beginning of this year and if we had, and we would have actually believed it, we would have thought we would never make it through. However, so far, we did. The past few months have shown us, once again, how capable we are at adjusting to anything that gets thrown our way. Or that we stand up, set aside our differences for a while and fight together if what gets thrown our way is unacceptable. People tend to be scared of the unknown, but at the same time have a talent for dealing with it. We know how to shape and familiarize ourselves with the outcome. Maybe that’s the best thing about the future being unknown: if we don’t like what we’ve gotten used to, we can always change the present and hope for something better in the future.
