2020 was rough on the world as a whole. A global pandemic on a scale not seen in 100 years, environmental disasters, social and political upheaval… there was a LOT. Everything seemed to be reaching a breaking point after decades and generations of building pressure, all packed into one year. All of these events gave us an opportunity to reevaluate how we live our lives, what we really need, and the changes we need to enact–but there was also push-back from the status quo that has been gradually leading to the stagnancy of society and degradation of our environment. We aren’t done yet. There’s still a lot of work to do if humanity wants to evolve and become a better version of ourselves. I don’t imagine that 2021 will be magically better, I just hope that many of us take it as a chance to do better and grow from everything we learned in 2020.
For my own personal life, it’s been a mixed bag. At the start of quarantining in March, I had fallen into a pretty good routine. Some of my stress was lifted from me and I made some good progress. Then, in the summer, I started weaning off my medication. That… didn’t go well.
In the aftermath, all the routines and stability I had constructed for myself was gone. It was like the floor was pulled out from under me. I’ve been struggling to get even remotely close to back to that, but I’m adrift as I try to rebuild from scratch.
Locally, we had the wildfires that blacked out the sun and left us covered in ash and choked us with toxic air that broke records. We’ve had bad wildfires in the last decade, but this was worse. We’ve had protests against inequality that saw white supremacists treated favorably by the local police while people fighting for equity were shot with rubber bullets and tear gassed. In the last few weeks, right-wing extremists tried to force their way into the capital building, assaulted the very police they were supporting just a couple weeks earlier, and saw limited repercussions. Of course, the damage up in Portland isn’t as bad as some narratives would have you believe.
Aside from all this, I’ve had some good things happen! Sung and I finally went through with our plans to get married. I had hoped to have a small ceremony this year, but with the pandemic, that wasn’t going to happen and we had to compromise. So, on October 5th, Sung and I got married at the local courthouse with his parents, my mom, and my son present.
I don’t doubt that 2021 will be free of struggle, but we have to keep moving forward. I’m looking forward to an opportunity to reset and rebalance myself. Here’s to getting some shit done and forward momentum!