Ouiam el Hassani reflects on what could have been “the worst year ever”.
Do you remember New Year’s Eve 2019? The clock ticking the last joyful seconds of a year verging its end, as it has done each and every year before. The familiarity of it all, peppered with the excitement and the anticipation of a new year, and new opportunities. Perhaps you had a party to attend to, perhaps you toasted 2020 with a drink, and giggled at the thought of those -every-year’s- new-year’s resolutions, that might make it to the end of January, but never further. You wished everyone a “Happy New Year”, you made plans for the next 12 months, you thought of countries you would visit, people you would meet, adventures you would have. Not in your wildest and craziest thoughts have you imagined what a ride would 2020 be!
Yet here we are again, getting ready to welcome another year…. more uncertainty and confusion set the tone for the coming 12 months. An unusual hint of fear and caution surrounds our plans this time, creeping into our otherwise cheerful “Happy New Year” wishes, our toasts, and any plans we might have the courage to think of.
There is absolutely no doubt that 2020, has been one of the strangest years we have experienced. A year garnished with natural disasters, a global pandemic, a barely missed third world war, and the list is long. Many lives were lost, many people are left without a job, or financial security. People not being able to see their loved ones, businesses that closed down, and an intense amount of suffering everywhere.
The end of the year does not mark the end of our misery, for all we know this could last a lifetime, however 2020 will always be known for possibly being the worst year ever! Yet we survived it (well… almost!). Isn’t there pride and bravery in living through what would definitely be labeled the worst year of one’s lifetime, and emerge from it alive? Won’t we all have our own version of the story to tell our kids and grandkids?
Although 2020 has kicked butts all year round, it has in some way shaped the whole decade to come. In a way or another, it has made us more grateful and thankful for the smallest things. We want nothing more than things to go back to normal, the “normal” we once despised and considered unworthy of our appreciation. We want to be able to hug a friend, or breathe some fresh air. We want to make plans and travel as freely as we once did. We want to go ahead with our celebrations, and hope for new ones to come. We want what we once had but we never once stopped to cherish. 2020 showed us how much we value the people in our life, it allowed us to have plenty of zoom happy hours, with friends that we haven’t seen in years. It gave us the chance to take long walks, and most importantly it allowed us to just sit and do nothing, while connecting with ourselves, all of which can be a novel experience to many of us.
2020 transformed our TVs into time machines, making them transport us to our pasts through scenes of crowded restaurants and streets, where faces are unmasked, and people sit shoulder to shoulder in waiting areas, and benches at the park. The ache we now feel for a pre-COVID-19 world might seem unproductive, and this is exactly how the mind works: it plays tricks on you. We think of nostalgia as a gateway to sadness and gloominess, however, it is the exact opposite. Research has shown that the more nostalgic you are, the more optimistic you become. By remembering things about the past, it lays out a hopeful vision for the future.
So before saying Goodbye to what some might call “The worst year in one’s a lifetime”, let’s all do one thing…. Close your eyes, and ask yourself what do you feel nostalgic about when you look back at the early months of 2020, when the craziness started? What will you smile about? What will you miss? Thinking about the present through the eyes of your future self, can tell you what is important and beautiful in your life right now. This will not change how hard this year has been for many people, it won’t make all the losses disappear, but it will remind you of what you should be grateful for today.
