Finding the Good in 2020’s Hellish Moments: A Writing Exercise in Positivity
By: Shayla Raquel
Tags: Positivity, NaNoWriMo, Purpose, Life Lessons, 2020

Match.com, the online dating site, recently featured the funniest commercial I’ve seen in a really long time. Satan gets a “match” with a woman named 2020. They go on a date, and it’s love at first sight. They steal toilet paper, have a picnic in an empty football stadium, and even watch balls of fire rain down on our world. My favorite part was when they took a selfie in front of a literal dumpster fire.

At the end of the commercial, the tagline is: “Make 2020 your year.” But then a puff of smoke changes “2020” to “2021.”

I haven’t stopped thinking about this commercial. I’ve watched it probably five times now and shared it with my friends. I kept thinking, Why is this so hilarious to me? Why can’t I stop laughing at this silly commercial?

Because it was true, relatable, and macabre. Yes, the year 2020 really did seem like the literal devil came along to take this year and destroy it. Yes, I related to the dumpster fire because that’s what I, as well as so many others, have called this year. And yes, it was macabre because we had basically every wonderful thing stripped of us this year (still so). But the creators of this commercial decided to say:

We know 2020 was the worst thing ever. Let’s have a good laugh about it, okay? Let’s look on the bright side, please?

So I decided to do something weird. I am going to be transparent and write out five god-awful things that happened to me this year. But here’s the catch: I will tell you one amazing thing that happened because of that god-awful thing. This is also a good writing exercise because it forces me to look at a “bad” sentence and find something “good” in it. Let’s see if I can do it.

2020/Satan-y Thing #1:

Bad: I couldn’t attend a writers’ conference I had planned for nearly ten months because I was sick and thought I had COVID.

Good: I didn’t have COVID. I had good old-fashioned exhaustion. Because I had to stay home that weekend, it meant I rested for like three days straight. It meant that my incredible friends, who happen to be my trustees for the writers’ group, handled the entire conference and hit it out of the park. That reminded me: You cannot do it all, so it’s okay to ask for help.

2020/Satan-y Thing #2:

Bad: I lost three manuscript edits, one near completion, due to a computer malfunction, mere days before the due dates.

Good: It prompted me to spend time finding better solutions to keeping my files safe. This was way overdue. I now use a hard drive just for Time Machine (Mac) and use the AutoSave feature through Office.

2020/Satan-y Thing #3:

Bad: I haven’t been on speaking terms with a couple family members for five months, and it has shattered my heart and left a void in my life.

Good: I rewrote this section several times because I couldn’t think of one good thing it’s given me. But I came up with this: If it weren’t for this awful thing, I wouldn’t have made some huge and necessary changes in my life that were vital to my mental, physical, and emotional health.

2020/Satan-y Thing #4:

Bad: I have gained a whole lot of weight, which has taken a hard hit on my self-esteem, especially since I did weight loss surgery in 2018. I feel like I’m ruining all my hard work.

Good: I ate some really, really good food. No, but seriously . . . the good is: it’s not permanent. I can get the extra weight off. It’s not like I lost an arm or a foot. I gained weight, and I can fix that problem. Another plus: I’m warmer than normal here in the winter thanks to the extra weight. Snort.

2020/Satan-y Thing #5:

Bad: I didn’t do — and I cannot stress this enough — diddly squat for NaNoWriMo this year. I printed out my motivational stuff, I planned write-ins, I did NaNo videos . . . and I still straight up did not follow through.

Good: If I had done NaNo this November, I wouldn’t have been able to work my butt off on projects so I could take off work this December. I also wouldn’t have been able to turn in my book of poetry to the editor. There will be time for my novel in the New Year.

Okay, that was a seriously difficult mental challenge and a tough writing exercise. I want to challenge you to write out the bad things that have happened to you this year and find the positive in those things. It’s cathartic to write out the awful things that happened, but it’s empowering to find the good that came from them. Think you can do it?