Going into 2021 like, “Not gonna let this dumpster fire go to waste”
I have a confession to make. I don’t want to forget 2020. In fact, I want to tug on the shirt sleeve of anyone who posts about wiping this year from our collective cloud storage and say, “but then it won’t have meant anything, all of our loss, isolation, and dread.”
I don’t want to let this crisis go to waste.
I wonder why it is that we pledged to “never forget” 9–11 but we are so eager to erase the memory of 2020? Shouldn’t we build a GD monument to our ability to find small moments of joy despite the world around us?
We went through so much uncertainty, pain and hardship in 2020 - together even though we were apart. Disoriented by the uncertainties wrought by cancer, parenting and entrepreneurship in 2019, I hated coronavirus … BUT — can I admit to you? — I was also secretly so grateful for the company in grieving the loss of the idea of our lives as we thought they’d turn out.
No one I know had the year they thought they were going to have in 2020. But then as I looked deeper, I realized something. It’s more than just 2020. Here’s the thing: no one I know is having the life they expected, full stop. In my close friend group: we have a spouse with Stage IV cancer; we have…
