2020 was undoubtedly an unprecedented time. As COVID-19 shook the world, taking lives and damaging economies, lockdown altered the daily lives of many and offered unrivalled time for reflection. With plenty of unknowns ahead in 2021, Empoword’s contributors share their thoughts on this historic year.
“It was a year of resistance against injustice.”
2020: The year that never was. I had so many plans for the year of my graduation, but things obviously didn’t go as expected. It’s been a bleak time, full of fear and insecurity. However, even the darkest hours can sometimes teach us valuable lessons. For me, 2020 brought the realisation that there are things we have no control over – like the global outbreak of a deadly virus from which your loved ones, miles away from you, could get sick. Regarding these, I’ve been incredibly lucky, and I’m grateful for it. Then come the things that we can control to some extent. We should remember that 2020 was also more than Covid-19. It was a year of resistance against injustice. What I hope to bring into 2021 is the courage and resilience of the Black Lives Matter movement and all those who protested police brutality around the world; of Polish and Argentinian women fighting for their reproductive rights; of the Belarussian people and everyone who stood up for democracy worldwide. While I trust in science for the mitigation of the pandemic, I aim to fight harder and better over the issues I can do something about.
“2020 has taught me lessons that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”
2020 was one of the hardest years of my life, but it taught me one of the most important lessons: putting myself first. To get through 2020, I had to realise that no one was more important than myself and no one could look after me the way I could look after myself. The year gave me plenty of time by myself which is what I think I always needed after being such a social person. Being by myself allowed me to take care of myself and to teach myself the importance of self-care and self love. 2020 has taught me lessons that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
Just when I believed I had already endured the most difficult times of my life, 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic came into view. While at little personal risk from the virus itself, its effects on my life – as for many – have been frustrating, to say the least. Nobody can deny that living in lockdown, as necessary as it currently is, can be boring, infuriating and socially isolating. 2020 was all of those things – but in other ways, it provided a liberating wake-up call. It was the year I properly discovered and dived into student journalism, finding a new passion I could nurture amidst the chaos and instability of the pandemic. More generally as a society, we are nurturing the ability to reflect as we consider what aspects of the appropriately apocalyptically nicknamed “before times” we want to carry into a post-pandemic world. And that has to be a good thing.
“2020 taught me that if you want something, go for it!”
2020 was a rollercoaster of a year, yet it taught me that having a positive mindset is vital when going through challenging times. It also taught me to cherish every second spent with family and friends and appreciate the small things in life. With the quick descent into chaos that occurred after March, 2020 is not a year I will be remembering fondly, and it was definitely unwelcome and unprecedented. Yet, without the lockdown, I never would have pursued my passion of writing, so most notably 2020 taught me that if you want something, go for it!
Featured image courtesy of Kelly Sikkema via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.