2020.

I started the year with so much happiness. My sisters and I sang praises and danced until it was midnight, and then we shared hugs, wished ourselves a happy new year and made positive declarations. 2019 was a bad year, I hoped 2020 would be different. I resumed school as a final year student and by my calculations, was supposed to graduate in August. A few weeks in, Corona Virus grew stronger than ever. Some people said it wasn't real, some people held on tightly to their facemasks and sanitizers. Schools were closed down. It became clear to me that somehow, graduating in August wasn't going to happen. 



But somewhere in the midst of these spiraling events, I met someone. I fell hard and made beautiful love. I couldn't stand being home all day doing nothing, so I acquired a skill and mastered it. I learnt how to make clothes. I read more books than I had read all my life and wrote often. I started my blog. I started working on my book, made great progress. I participated in writing competitions online and offline and won so many times. I was doing great financially. I felt like I wasn't doing enough, like I was wasting so much time. I made posts about how miserable the year was and truly, it was. People were dying. There were so many restrictions, so many clauses. Xenophobic attacks happened, War threats happened, #EndSars happened. Cost of living doubled, tripled even. People were dying.


I think about all of it now and I can only say it was an "eventful" year for me and for the world. Maybe it was how fast things were moving, maybe it was the fact that so many things were happening at a time that blindfolded me to the actual realities of the time. How do I explain this? How can a year that was nothing but torture for a lot of people all over the world, be the happiest year of my life? It's crazy. It's crazy how I couldn't see and appreciate this, how I sat home and wished we could skip the year, when it gave me everything I asked God for. I didn't graduate, but I learnt a skill. I was excelling, I was growing, I was happy.

The second half of this year will begin by midnight today. The second half of 2021. I am a graduate. The virus is almost gone, things are becoming as they were before the virus -except, ofcourse, the cost of living. But I was in a better place last year. I know it was a bad year for a lot of people. I know it left scars in so many lives, but the truth is, I am grateful for 2020. 


I am grateful for the happiest year of my life.


What was 2020 like for you?

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