I think we can all agree that 2020 and 2021 have not been ideal. Some would even argue that the past 12 months have been some of the worst of their lives. We have witnessed horrific natural disasters, injustice, a pandemic, a rather messy election and the list goes on. It’s no secret that there are a lot of things we would all change about the world right now.
In the midst of all this, however, I think it is also very important to search for the good. This isn’t meant to be a “look on the bright side” argument. Trust me, I fully acknowledge that this past year has been a disaster. Instead of ignoring the pain from the last year, what I have been trying to do is take the bad in stride, while recognizing the positive that can and has come out of all of it.
For me, a lot of the extended time indoors and alone has forced me to work on a lot about myself. In my past years at Asbury, I definitely did not spend enough time addressing things that were going on in my own head. I often dove headfirst into whatever would keep me busy enough to keep my personal problems at bay so that I didn’t spend too much time overthinking and panicking.
Hindsight is 20/20. When COVID-19 sent us all home, and I spent days on end in my house without leaving, I realized there were some things that I had not focused on in myself, things that I should have paid more attention to.
So, I spent a lot of the seemingly endless time at home figuring out how to function on my own without school to distract me. It was tough, I won’t deny that. Looking back, though, I am thankful that I had to face those things because now I have learned more about myself. As weird as it is to say, I have COVID to thank for that.
Again, I don’t want to come off as saying that I’m glad COVID became part of our lives. It has been truly heartbreaking to see loss after loss at the hands of this virus. I think it would be a waste, though, to ignore the good that has come out of it.
Even at a national level, in the middle of a pandemic, we have seen a massive civil rights movement. It is entirely possible that this could have happened with or without COVID, but I think there is something to be said about the sheer amount of people that had no choice but to pay attention because there was nothing to drown out the movement.
Maybe there are things that have happened for you that would not have happened without the brutal life interruption of a pandemic. Or maybe there are opportunities that you have now that you didn’t before. Maybe there are good things yet to come that wouldn’t have come otherwise.
Again, COVID is horrible. I would give virtually anything to rid us all of it. That’s not in anyone’s power, though, and we must move forward. What I’m saying in all this is that it has been helpful to me to recognize what good has come as a result of the past year’s chaos. Maybe it would be helpful for you, too. We can find a common ground in the fact that grumbling and hating life won’t make anything different. We might as well try to enjoy ourselves and make the best of everything in life.
