Reflecting

Reflect on the year of 2020 and determine what the lessons learned were, will be, and what impact you want this unique year to have on you in 2021 or in the long term.

In no particular order, 2020 has taught me or reinforced my beliefs that:

• I’m far stronger – physically, mentally, and emotionally – than I realized.
• Anything can change faster than one believes possible. Permanence is an illusion.
• I can be misanthropic and feel great empathy for humanity at the same time.
• Conservatives have gone so far down the rabbit hole that centrism is perceived as borderline radical-left. This is dangerous and should remain alarming.
• I must continue to highly value my parents, even if I see them every day. I’m fortunate to still have them.
• A dog can soothe an infinite number of stresses and hurts.
• Trust is significantly undervalued. Mine is not anymore. If I trust you, know that it is not given lightly.
• It’s possible to use commonalities to bridge a relationship with a person fundamentally different than oneself, and sometimes necessary, as distasteful as that may be.
• Racism is much more prevalent and open now than most people realized. It is not to be tolerated.
• People who don’t see race at all can’t see the patterns of the problems.
• My circle of friends and acquaintances reordered themselves, both by their words and actions, and by my willingness to open up to them.
• There are active causes I would willingly die for, literally. And I’d go down fighting.
• Science.

I think that all the stresses and changes 2020 has wrought have filtered and refined my core values. I am a better person for it. I’m going to carry this and my inner strength into 2021, and continue to shed the unnecessary, for there I will find peace.