Hindsight is 2020

 Last year at this time, many of us were setting goals for our aspirations and dreams for the new year of 2020 that seemed to promise perfection, just like vision, but even before the first month was over, with the tragedy of the death of Kobe Bryant and the eight others in the helicopter, some of us can reflect on the fact that 2020 was not perfect. It is within a year like this that we cannot just forget and throw it away. If we don’t take time to look back and learn from 2020, it will be a waste. It will just be a year of chaos instead of a reflection of incredible lessons to be learned. 

Here are some of the lessons I had to learn. 

Adaptability. First lesson for me was to learn to adapt working at home. I prided myself on rarely doing work at home. I graded in coffee shops, just so I could keep home for the place to relax. That had to change. I also had to write more at home. I had to make my desk accessible. I had to adapt to working hours and non-working hours. I had to adapt to teaching with different strategies to keep my students engaged. Then, I had to search for a job. 

Faith. I had to look for a new job while teaching because I was furloughed. In June, I found one. My mom had to have surgery in order to swallow again. Her surgery was in July and she can and does eat everything in sight. I had to trust God when life looked bleak and I thought I was alone. I had to trust God when there was no light at the end of the tunnel. 

Light. There is light in the darkness. My new job is incredible. It has brought back my passion for teaching and bringing equity into education. I have found inspiration in writing and may have found some solutions to getting published. Jesus has given me strength in times when I felt helpless. 

Strength. When the protests broke out, I understood that change needed to happen. I see the inequity in education and racism is settled in the roots. As I try to write the truth, I am also trying to create bridges for my current students to cross in order to have the same opportunities as all other students. They work hard. They just need the same tools so that their hard work is producible. 

Knowledge. I have had to keep learning. I have read books, watched documentaries and movies in order to understand lives that are different from mine. I have studied scientific processes in order to understand all the polarization and generalization that is occurring in our world and is prevalent on social media. 

Wisdom. For some people, social media became a platform in which they could communicate with others. For other people, it became a platform for them to tell everyone how right they are with their politics, knowledge of science, and pretty much answers for everything. In the past few weeks, I have had to use wisdom in how to respond to people. I’m still working on that one. 

Live. I have had to live each and every day with purpose and with fullness. There has been so much loss of life this year. Many of us have experienced grief on some level. Some people lost their means to living. We have to keep living. We have to create. We have to move forward when we see in hindsight that 2020 is a year full of lessons. May we all learn from the lessons that it has taught us.