Lessons of 2020

Internet’s drowning in memes depicting the passing year as the worst one we had in ages. People are summing up their losses, praying for 2021 to be at least slightly less disastrous, while I’m sitting here, cuddled up on the sofa with a cup of my favourite hot chocolate in hand, wondering whether it’s possible that I’ve just lived through one of the best years of my life. Can I even say it?

2020 was certainly a test, and not an easy one at that. But I feel like I’m getting out of it with more gains than losses. And amongst those gains, there are five life lessons worth remembering, pandemic or not.

Perspective

Sometimes life fucks you over.

And you find yourself thinking: shit, I should have known better, there were warning signs from the very beginning. Ah yes, sure, but you did weigh them against other available options at the time and made a conscious choice, didn’t you? And really, when you look back closely enough, no matter how much of a shitshow it turned out to be, you did gain a lot from it.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s never just win or just lose. 

The problem with perspective is that it does not kick in until way later. Before you reach that “I-can-take-some-useful-lesson-out-of-this” point, you usually manage to completely exhaust yourself mentally.