Positive Takeaways in a Less Than Stellar Year
I hesitated writing this post because this genuinely has been a terrible year for a lot of people. People reading this may have lost loved ones, lost jobs due to the recession, got sick themselves, or just generally at a breaking point with their own personal stress levels.
Parents have had to figure out how to both work from home and be schools/daycares. Some folks have had to make difficult decisions regarding family gatherings at various times. Watching the news isn’t the most fun thing in the world and has the ability to only compound any feelings of uncertainty folks have this year. Communities of people rightfully felt ostracized. Other communities fractured apart.
2020 has been a dumpster fire in a lot of ways. In a polarized world, it’s a sentiment that appears to have stretched across the aisle.
This year has held a lot of stressors for our family as well - though we have been really fortunate for the most part. While this year has been a huge challenge in a lot of ways, there was some good to come out of it.
It’s naïve to not acknowledge the pain and stress folks have experienced in varying degrees. It also feels unhealthy to only focus on that. Here are a few of the positives I am going to be able to take away from the year.
Enjoying More Time with the Kids
This may sound terrible but that is a statement I don’t feel like I could have written back in March and April. Daycares were closed, we were trying to sell our home and keep our foot on the gas in our respective jobs all at the same time. Having two toddlers always (and I mean always there) made a challenging situation a true test of patience. We were doing presentations from the car while driving kids around, trading off taking the kids throughout the day to give the other working time, and having an unwavering faith in the reliability of our phones’ mute buttons navigating meetings and meltdowns.
In retrospect, it was a good thing. I got to get out in the middle of the day and take the kids for walks in the woods (mainly because everything else was closed at the time). We did midday arts and crafts. Megan and I would have afternoon snuggle time with the kids to try and coax them into a nap. Having them around all the time did make work more stressful - but it’s something I know I’ll have an odd sense of nostalgia for later on. Even with the kids being back at daycare most of the time now, we look forward to our weekend playtime with them even more than we used to.
Refocused on Running
One of the saving graces Megan and I gave each other during the pandemic was alternating mornings to go running. Megan has become the runner in our family the last few years, even completing her first half marathon a week or two before the world shut down in March. Personally, after running was effectively my job from middle school all through my first year out of college, I was burned out on the sport. However, I wasn’t about to turn down an opportunity for an hour of silence, even if it meant I had to get out there and give running another try.
The habit stuck. I run nearly every other day and have learned to be able to go on a run for the love of it and not to compete (which is good because man I’m slow right now). Running has become an important part of my routine and mental health. There is something to be said for a consistent exercise routine and not losing your mind.
Healthier Approach to News Consumption
I’ve blogged about this already this year but it bears repeating. Facebook and Twitter are garbage news sources. A well-informed person is not one who binges on everything but curates information wisely. We should all read widely and take in a variety of perspectives but being glued to your phone or 24/7 news channel of choice is no way to be an engaged citizen. We should all treat media diets the same way we treat food diets in our New Years Resolutions in 2021.
More Intentional Focus on Personal Faith
I’ve asked “why?” a lot this year. Why a pandemic? Why are people really angry about ___? Why do some folks believe ___? Why do I believe what I believe?
Apparently a lot of people asked Google why too.
In a year where most churches are virtual and in-person community has been a challenge, I realized how much of my own faith leaned too heavily on community and not on my own personal pursuit. I’ve spent more time this year trying to carve out more intentional quiet times journaling, Bible reading and reading from other books (like this one and this one). Part of this has been a stress behavior of mine - knowledge gathering gives me a sense of security. But I also know it’s been a nudge from God to use turmoil in the world as an opportunity to better navigate it.
While it’s helped me take my faith more seriously, it’s also helps me keep my head. When I read something on the news or see a Facebook post from someone else that just doesn’t feel right, I have more foundation to navigate that thinking. I’m letting my own faith experience navigate life now instead of letting another person (or social post) tell me how I should feel. When in-person church community becomes more normal again here in a few months, I think it’ll be a richer experience than it had been before.
Other Cool Things Did Happen
While we did experience some setbacks and stressors we normally would not have faced in normal years, we did have our fair share of great things to happen:
Moved into a new home in a wonderful neighborhood in Atlanta, walkable to a lot of things for our family. Buying and (especially) selling a home in a pandemic is not for the faint of heart.
As part of that move, we transitioned into a smaller house and got rid of a lot of junk we didn’t need. Purging clutter had its own set of mental health rewards.
Our marketing team at Womble Bond Dickinson won a few awards for digital campaigns we stood up at the start of COVID-19.
Megan landed a new role that seems built for her strengths at a great agency.
My responsibilities grew at Womble, taking on CRM in addition to my other digital marketing responsibilities.
We were able to spend a lot of time taking the kids to museums (once they opened of course).
Because of the time crunch, I learned how to better prioritize my time and be better at focusing.
There was a lot to be down about in 2020. What stands out to me is not the worst of what we saw but the best. I saw neighbors helping each other out. People fundraising to help their small businesses. Even businesses struggling to make their own ends meet found ways to help their community (like our neighborhood coffee shop, as featured on Good Morning America).
Nothing was ideal but I genuinely loved seeing the creativity on display around how businesses served customers during a pandemic, how we found community and learned to make the most of our virtual environment.
2020 sucked - but not all of it did. What bright spots, even tiny ones, did you find this year?