Hello everyone,
We are in the last week of 2020. What a year it has been! From its conception till now, event after event, shock after shock. This extremity is why I think we need to reflect even harder on how this year has been for each of us individually. This is what I want to do in this post. Here is my reflection. PS: I am aware that some of you might have had it harder than me. Maybe you lost someone or their jobs or got sick. I really hope everything works out the best for everyone. This will be my reflection, but feel free to share yours if you had it harder and hated this year too (and also if you loved it, of course). Anyways, here we go.
I think I would rate this year as one of my top years so far in terms of personal development. All the difficulties we faced made me turn to myself and find out ways I can handle the problems in the best way possible. Things that worked out for me individually. I also tried to keep a positive outlook as much as possible. For example, when the quarantine orders came in in March, I took this as a challenge (rather than an order/a threat) to see how long I could go without going out (as a person who went out almost everyday). I enjoyed the challenge at the time, but I could not go without going out at all anymore. So then, I tried to discover what my middle ground is. Namely, how I could stay safe while also going out. That helped me a lot to understand my preferences, limits and the external factors.
Then, the summer came. My biggest challenge then was not being able to go to my home country to visit my family. It hit me hard. But I had made some good friends by then at this time and I hang out with them. The biggest benefit of me not going to my home country is that I was able to write most of my dissertation at that time. Had I gone, my dissertation would still be waiting to be written.
The fall so far has been me enjoying the benefits of the patterns I established over the spring and the summer. The extra time I was given allowed me to establish tighter connections with people and with myself. I discover some of my hidden talents (e.g. talking to people, which I now do 4-5 hours on average a day), which really opened up new career options for me. The biggest benefit of all for me, though, is that I am better at accepting the unknown now. That took me from a person who wanted to guarantee everything to someone who accepts every possibility. That is what I had been wanting to do for years by now. I am very grateful for that. In fact, I now prefer not knowing to planning, because the latter is much less exciting. For example, I don’t even know if I can see my family in the following summer, but that does not bother me as much. Let’s see what life holds for me.
Now I want to hear your reflections. Good or bad, I want to hear how you saw this year overall and what you think you learnt from it. Let’s have some reflection!