2020 : A Rude Awakening
2020! What a year. Seems like just yesterday I celebrated a ‘quiet’ New Year’s Eve at home with a glass of wine as I wasn’t in a mood to go out and attend a party. I can’t help but laugh at the bucket list I had created for myself at the start of the year. Half the things I wanted to achieve — the places I wanted to visit and the people I wanted to spend time with seem like a far fetched dream now.
COVID-19 has turned all our lives topsy-turvy and for many of us it has proved to be challenging — mentally, emotionally and physically. If you are someone like me — i.e. an extrovert who gets recharged in the presence of other people, this is a living nightmare and I just want to say, I feel you!
I’m not going to sit here and lie to you and pretend that I have a magical formula that can help us get through this tough period — I don’t; I raise my eyebrows everytime I come across an article or a social media post which propagates about how we should use this time to emerge out of this as “better people” with amazing skill sets (insert eye roll).
Let’s face it —we’re going through a challenging period. A very challenging period. What is happening all over the world — from riots in USA to plane crash in Pakistan and the never-ending COVID-19 saga is very unsettling and stressful. Some people have been able to cope with this very well and huge respect to them whereas others, such as yours truly are struggling in some ways and finding new avenues to keep their restless mind occupied.
Reach out to those who you think are struggling and lend out a helping hand. Appreciate, don’t criticize — with all that’s happening around us, it is very easy for us to throw out our misplaced anger and frustration on our near and dear ones — I’m totally guilty of doing this. Day by day, I am slowly accepting the situation. That it will take some time for things to settle down again — for me to sip my favorite glass of wine in a restaurant with the people I like without being worried about how I will get there, if I will unknowingly infect someone, etc.
Everybody is dealing with the new normal at their own pace and in their own manner.
Please have some compassion. Pour in some extra love if you can. Together, we will get through the rude awakening that 2020 has been.