How 2020 Was the Year I Got My Life Back
By: Steven Hopper
Tags: Inspiration, Life Lessons, Motivation, Life, Growth

Photo by Edwin Hooper on Unsplash

As 2020 comes to a close, there’s a lot to look back at and think about. We all had to make major unforeseen life adjustments and many had to deal with tragic loss and heartache.

And while I think everyone wants to look back at this year as the worst year on record, I can’t help but think about how this year gave me a new chance at life.

I think about the following lessons I learned and realize that, in many ways, 2020 was truly a blessing in disguise.

1. Gratitude

Photo by Nicholas Bartos on Unsplash

I started 2020 still dealing with debilitating symptoms caused by an autoimmune arthritis condition that first showed up over two years ago. Since that time I had been in and out of the doctor undergoing test after test and trying many different medications, but to no avail and no specific diagnosis.

It wasn’t until right before the quarantine lockdown that I finally got the medicine I needed to get relief from the persistent pain and swelling that had kept me from living a normal life.

Then COVID forced us all to stay home. What started out as two weeks turned into a much longer time and completely ruptured everyone’s view of “normal life.” The uncertainty alone brought on high anxiety and fear of what things would look like and how we were all going to adapt to such isolation.

And while it was difficult at first, people quickly adapted, including myself. Looking back, I feel extreme gratitude for how quarantine played out and for many reasons.

Firstly, I am grateful to those who put their lives on the line each and every day to serve and protect those of us who had the luxury of working from home. We owe those people a world of gratitude for their sacrifice.

This includes teachers, a profession I left just last year as a result of my arthritis diagnosis and feel extremely thankful that I did. Instead, I listened with horror and sadness to my teacher friends as they shared how things at school were going.

The worst part was hearing how leaders (from school administrators all the way to the U.S. president) were handling the situation. Not only did many leaders implement botched plans for how to re-open safely, but they also showed little appreciation for the hard work and dedication of those putting their lives in danger on the frontlines.

Yet despite the stupidity at the top, there was so much hope coming from people doing the right thing, protecting themselves and others, and lifting each other up along the way.

I will never forget those heroes and their actions as the bright side of 2020.

Secondly, I am grateful for the expansion of work-from-home opportunities. 2020 taught us that technology really can re-shape the modern lifestyle. This has many benefits and opens up many opportunities for people, including those of us with health conditions that limit our ability to lead “normal” everyday lives.

For me, working from home gave me the opportunity to heal from my chronic illness. It took six months for the new medicine to take full effect and put my arthritis into remission, but I finally feel back to normal. Working from home took away the stress of hiding my symptoms from people and of managing through the pain when some days I didn’t want to get out of bed.

Now, I have energy again for the first time in two years. I am finally able to work out and that’s helping me re-gain not only the physical strength, but also the emotional strength that I had lost. I’m grateful to be able to jump out of bed in the morning and once again be the annoyingly cheery person with my high energy and enthusiasm for life.

In this way, 2020 truly saved my life.

Lastly, I am thankful for the progress that humanity has made in 2020. Although there’s still a long way to go, there were positive milestones throughout this year that showed me how much people care about each other and how much people can positively effect change.

I became immensely grateful for so many people — for the frontline workers, the researchers and vaccine developers, the mask wearers and human rights activists, the political campaign supporters and poll workers, as well as the social media entertainers (because laughter is truly the best medicine).

2020 showed me the compassion and determination of humanity to come together and support each other through some of the biggest challenges we’ve ever faced.

So while many people may look back and remember 2020 as a terrible year, I’ll look back and think of it as the year people overcame tremendous obstacles. And I want to thank each and every one of them for doing so.

The most important lesson of 2020: We can’t choose what life will throw at us, but we can choose to be grateful for whatever life we have.

2. Connection

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Being stuck in isolation makes you appreciate new ways of connecting. I’m not talking about how we all learned how to have virtual hangouts and happy hours as a way to connect during the two-week lockdown.

Because even once the world opened back up, we still had to live under permanent COVID conditions. The new normal became checking to make sure you had a mask with you at all times, limiting hangouts with friends, and avoiding long, socially-distant lines everywhere you went.

With all of the typical social venues closed down and limits on the number of people allowed to gather, trying to truly connect with people started to feel like a draining chore. When I spent my whole day on the computer in virtual meetings, the last thing I wanted to do was see my family or friends through a screen (Zoom fatigue is real).

There was one place, however, that was still safe to travel, always open for visitors, and provided relief from the stress and eyestrain of virtual interactions.

2020 was the year that I got back to nature and found real connection by distancing myself from the virtual world COVID imposed on me.

I spent time camping for the first time ever. I went on countless walks and even scheduled them as a midday break from work. On the weekends, I hiked and hammocked, sunbathed and read outdoors. And more than ever before, I just sat outdoors with family and friends.

I had always been a fan of nature, sure, but 2020 showed me the important role that nature plays in how humans function.

There’s actually scientific evidence to prove that nature not only relieves stress, but literally resets our brains from the constant barrage of modern-day distractions and the noise that internet and cell service have created.

While these are beneficial tools, I think it’s safe to say that most of us overuse these technologies as a way to feel “connected,” but this kind of connection only leaves us feeling dissatisfied and alone.

When we spend more time staring at screens than enjoying our surroundings, it prevents us from enjoying the present moment. Suddenly, we fill all of our time with these fake distractions and lose our sense of connection, whether to each other or to nature or both.

Spending time outdoors in 2020 has allowed me to unplug from social media, slow down, forget about my to-do list and email, and re-connect with the present moment and the people I’m enjoying it with.

This year reminded me that while technology and human innovation are there to provide convenience and comfort, that’s not how humans were made to live. We should understand this, because there is clear evidence of how our modern lifestyles are actually destroying our natural environment through pollution and climate change.

2020 brought this human impact to light when we saw that by shutting down and staying home there were positive side effects on the environment.

This fact alone should give us all pause as we consider how we’re treating the very home we need to survive and yet tend to avoid in favor of our modern conveniences.

2020 taught me this second important lesson: nature isn’t just a fun getaway spot; it’s a necessary part of everyday life that we must not only respect, but cherish with undivided attention.

3. Growth

Photo by Tonik on Unsplash

When you have to completely re-think your daily routine and adjust to new ways of living, it forces you to step out of your comfort zone.

We all initially reacted to the pandemic by panicking and resisting the changes (some still resist wearing a mask, in fact).

But the biggest lesson for me came in realizing that no amount of complaining was going to change reality, so I might as well figure out how to adapt. Once I started to embrace the reality of COVID, I learned so much about myself and unlocked incredible new possibilities.

I learned, for example, how lucky I am for the job that allowed me to work from home and for the treatment I got to help heal my arthritis. I gained a grateful outlook and vowed never to take for granted the extra time I now have back in my schedule because of the convenience the pandemic gifted me.

And then, virtual meetings taught me just how much time I spend in front of screens all day. When my mental health started to suffer, I learned to cut off my screen time and make my days more meaningful by spending them outdoors with people I love and not on my phone.

I started using my extra time to reach out to others who didn’t have the luxury of staying home or who felt isolated and alone during quarantine. I learned that this should have always been a part of my life, whether or not there was a global pandemic happening, because helping others truly does bring joy and meaning to one’s existence.

Don’t get me wrong, I also made plenty of mistakes in 2020 and felt frustrated and defeated many times. I kept wanting life to be back to “normal” and to go out and let loose in crowded social events. There were many days I didn’t want to talk to people, because I hated connecting with them virtually when I really wanted to see them in person.

But all of this taught me about self-care and emotional expression. I was never one to talk about how I feel or open up to others, but this became impossible in 2020 as we all felt the weight of uncertainty, anxiety, and fear of COVID every single day.

When will this end? Who will get sick next? When will the vaccine be ready? How will life look even if we get the vaccine? Would things ever go back to the way they were before the pandemic?

It took a lot of reflecting, reading, spending time outdoors, and writing to understand my own feelings and how to express them. What I realized in 2020 is that I hadn’t overcome my two-year journey of dealing with my arthritis diagnosis and switching from a career I loved so much into one that I had to start all over again.

In general, I realized that I am the type of person who is either stuck worrying about the future or lamenting the past, but never fully enjoying the present moment.

2020 helped me learn how to identify and overcome these tendencies. It pushed me to recognize my behavior, shift my mindset, and find joy in the here-and-now.

The old me would’ve ended this by saying something like “let’s see what 2021 will bring”, but it honestly doesn’t matter. What matters is being grateful for each and every day, feeling connected in the present moment, and using all of life’s lessons as an opportunity to grow.

While 2020 may have shut down the world and changed life forever, it opened my eyes to new ideas and new possibilities for the future.

And that gave me my life back.