F**k you, 2020...but also, thank you
How would you describe your 2020?
My suggestion? Fuck you 2020...but also, thank you.
As I sit down this year to pen my annual “Goodbye to (year)...” article, I’m full of so many complex, yet-to-be reconciled feelings related to 2020.
On the one hand, there’s confusion, bewilderment, anger, resentment, fear, anxiety, uncertainty and doubt.
But, on the other, there’s immense gratitude, accomplishment, resilience, confidence, clarity, focus, determination and joy.
How can one person play in two completely different sandboxes at once?
Don’t ask me - ask 2020.
Or rather, tell 2020, “Fuck you...but also, thank you.”
Fuck you for all of the hardships, conflicts and death brought on by virus, racism, social unrest, natural distasters and all the other bullshit that’s happened this year.
But thank you for the opportunity to highlight how we all need to think, live and be better for ourselves and the greater good.
Fuck you for forcing people to lock down in their houses for months on end with no warning or plan to cope.
But thank you for inspiring folks to seize the opportunity to be better partners, parents, friends when it mattered most.
Fuck you for the amount of anxiety and fear you struck into the hearts of those just trying to live their lives.
But thank you for allowing those who can look back at this year from the other side with resilience and newfound strength, which will lead to a better and brighter future.
Fuck you for blowing up people’s livelihoods and industries, including the speaker, trainer and expert community I serve and the photographer community to which I am a proud card carrier.
But thank you for inspiring many of these people to pull their heads out of the sand and reinvent themselves in ways that they never could have imagined in any other circumstance.
Fuck you for pushing me into one of the darkest periods in my life when I got sick at the beginning of the world being crippled during the rise of the coronavirus.
But thank you for also willing me into a place that allowed me to see life from a completely different angle - an angle that lit a fire under my ass and inspired me to improve my health, mental well-being, relationships with my friends, and turned a shit salad of a situation into my best year in business.
Fuck you, 2020...you know what you did.
But thank you, as well...I don’t know where I would be without your push.
And on that note, I kindly ask you to raise your mug or glass or whatever you’re drinking, pour out a little in memory of those who won’t see another day, and down the rest.
If you’re reading this, that means you made it through the gauntlet, ready to live and grow another day.
See it as a gift wrapped up in loads of opportunity.
And don’t ever forget the lessons learned during one of the most tumultuous times in your life. You’re a better person for it - for you, for your family and friends, for your clients, and for the world at large.
Let’s kick the shit out of 2021 together.
#yeahabsolutely