2020 – It’s finally coming to an end

It’s almost over!

2020 – a year likely to be remembered in infamy – is finally coming to an end. In less than 15 hours it will finally be over, much to the relief of pretty much everyone around the globe. (At least I imagine so. Especially if the existence of the Netflix movie Death to 2020 is anything to go by.)

Moving into a new year might be for the problems which arose in 2020 – because most of them will follow us into 2021 – but it will still be nice to get some distance from the year that’s come to be associated with so much bad. (If you need a comedic and therefore bearable reminder of all the bad, I highly recommend Netflix’s Death to 2020.)

Things started to look a little brighter at the tail end of 2020 – with Trump losing the US presidential election and vaccines becoming available for coronavirus, for example. But it wasn’t enough to tip the balance in favour of the year, and it’s more likely than not that people’s sentiments towards 2020 remain negative.

On a personal level, however, I am fortunate enough to say that I had an alright 2020, which I’m grateful for.

I did experience some downs. Most disappointingly, Christmas at my house because Covid finally to us. We enjoyed it as much as we could, but it’s certainly not the Christmas we’d hoped to have. I was also disappointed because I didn’t manage to achieve the majority of my New Year’s resolutions. But hey, there’s always 2021 (which most people are already relying on to be a better year globally, so why not rely on it for this too?).

More positively, 2020 also saw me saving a bit of extra money because I was working from home and not commuting, and though I didn’t achieve them, I did make plenty of progress towards my resolutions. I also managed to stay sane in a year which has been an enemy to sanity, and that’s a definite plus.

Still, given the big picture of 2020, I count myself among those happy to see the year coming to an end. There’s been so much disappointment and mayhem and tragedy around the globe that I’m happy to see it come to an end despite how relatively benign my own experience with it was.

With the beginning of 2021, and with the consideration of the future instead of the past, comes hope. We can’t say for sure that 2021 will see things in the world improve, but the year is yet to happen, so there’s still the chance that it could. Considering the year the world has had, I’d say that’s worth something. Wouldn’t you?

Death to 2020

I’m not sure if this is a common experience, but when I try to look back at 2020, I mostly come up empty. So many memorable things happened this year, and yet my brain can hardly recall any of it when I try. At least that was the case before I watched Death to 2020 last night.

For me, watching Netflix’s Death to 2020 was a much-needed reminder of this year’s world events, which included: the Australian Bush fires, (more) US police brutality, Black Lives Matter protests, Covid, and the days-long process of the US presidential vote count. And, I’m pretty sure the movie left out at least a few notable 2020 events, for example, the Beirut explosion.

2020 really has pretty much been a year of constant troubles. Thank god it’s almost over and done with.

Death to 2020 indeed.

Here’s to 2021. Maybe it bring better things than the year before it.