When I first started this blog in June, I felt somewhat optimistic. The global Coronavirus situation was bleak and things were only set to get worse, yet I was still just positive enough to try and find a silver lining in an endless sky of thick, black clouds. I truly believed that there was still something left to salvage from a year of lockdowns and travel bans; a year when record unemployment, civil unrest and natural disasters briefly distracted us from an unprecedented global pandemic that has, at the time of writing, infected over 80 million people and caused more than 1.7 million deaths. 

As you may gather from the tone of my writing and general lack of activity on this website in recent months, my reserve of positivity is now running dangerously low. It has become increasingly more difficult to gather even an ounce of optimism when it seems that the entire planet is caught in a painful cycle of taking one step forward, and two steps back (take, for example, the recent approval and circulation of several vaccines being overshadowed by the emergence of brand new virus strains in multiple countries…). 

2020 is coming to an end, but our global struggle will continue on well into 2021. Under normal conditions, the uncertainty of a new year would be exciting and inspiring. Now, however, it inspires nothing but stress and the heavy awareness that things can always get worse. 

I would love to say that I have great plans for the coming year; big ideas or big dreams to push into reality. If 2020 has taught me anything, however, it’s that I have no real control over how things will go. Nothing is set in stone, and the uncertainty of a world in turmoil is disorienting enough without adding any drastic life changes on top. 

My goal for 2021 is simply to keep going. To stay healthy, smile as much as I can, and not take anything for granted. 

I hope that won’t be too much to aim for. 

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash