2020 has been a whack of a year but I don’t need to tell you that. It started with my family and I saying a final goodbye to my grandmother at her funeral, and then just got worse from there. Coronavirus threw everyone for a loop obviously, but it also put a lot into perspective for me. I left my college house in March when our school closed down and went from chaos with my best friends to a different type of chaos with my family at home.
Even though quarantine was rough because of basically four months not leaving the house, doing the same thing day in and day out and seeing the four other people I live with, I am grateful to have a family that I can spend every single second of every day with and actually still be able to live together. And yeah there were fights, I have a sister and a mom, but they were never over anything huge. We always came together in the end to play a family game or watch a movie and we always eat dinner together every single night no matter what. It taught me how strong and close my family really is and how lucky I am to have them.
My friends are the best people I know. From day one, one of my best friends from school was texting asking if I was okay and how I was coping. I have a long history with depression and anxiety and the fact that she remembered but was also there for me meant everything, even though it was such a small gesture. I joke with my friends that I “mate for life” like a penguin but it’s true and 2020 has shown me the people I will have in my life forever.
2020 has taught me how far I have come as well. There were times when I would freak out about leaving the house for the fear of dying, or bombing, or anything irrational, but this pandemic hit, and yeah I was anxious about it but not nearly to the level of anxiety I felt in high school about things that weren’t that big of a threat. This year has really shown me the progress I have made within myself that I don’t think seventeen-year-old me ever thought would happen.
2020 has been a rollercoaster of a time. I kept hoping and hoping for an end in sight, that my life could go back to normal, but I don’t think it will. Even when the pandemic is over, I have learned things about myself and the people around me that change how I see things now. It taught me true friendship, the testament of living with people (which is hard no matter who they are) and things about myself. I am not grateful for 2020 at all, way too many bad things have happened, but the in the face of all of this, I think it is nice to take a step back and see what you can take away from it.