Together

 You win some, you lose some.

What a year this has been, and I’m sure that we all can collectively agree that this year has been one of the most difficult we’ve faced in our lifetimes. Even our parents, who have probably seen everything, can say the same. I can talk about all the things that have gone terribly wrong in this year, but I want to highlight something about this year that gave me hope.

This year, it was new. Something we had not experienced before. Simple things that we took for granted now seemed like a privilege, and we didn’t know how to deal with that. But we adapted. And what stood out to me the most was, how wonderfully we came together as a race.

As soon as the lockdowns were announced, I saw people come together and set up NGOs and donation drives to help the less privileged. They set out and maybe even put their lives in danger to help a thousand others. We became empathetic. We understood the struggles of those around us. We helped our neighbours unconditionally. We focused on mental health. We spoke about mental health openly. We had conversations, difficult conversations. We learnt about something that we’ve been doing without realizing for centuries – we learnt about survival.

 And we did this, together.

This year has not been easy - we’ve lost loved ones, we’ve lost jobs, we’ve lost precious time – time for all the things we had planned.  We made room though, for things unplanned. We improvised and learnt new skills. We focused on the smaller things – simpler things. Cooking, cleaning, reading, picking up an old lost hobby, spending quality time with family or yourself – things we probably took for granted and felt guilty about not doing enough – wishing we had more time. We shared our progress with each other, encouraged each other and in many ways, we took the unknown and made it ours. We helped each other out.

And we helped each other, together.

This year has forced us to grow. It’s pulled you thin, made you question everything.
It’s given you the time to connect to things you’ve pushed aside. But it also made you realize – that everyone was human. From the healthcare workers, to your house help, to your partner, to your parents – it showed you the vulnerabilities of their lives and of your own. It forced people to speak about their hard lives, even those perfect ones on social media. It made you grow up! To look at others maybe just a bit more kinder. To not be judgemental about their lives or who they’ve become. We came to a learning about the simpler emotions.

And we came to this learning, together. 

And as we step into the new year, with the baggage of this year, the weight pushing us down, dragging our feet slowly, heavily – remember that you’re taking along in this bag your learnings – and remember to keep these learnings with you for not just the next year but your life. Years like these don’t come by often and if you’ve survived this one, just put on a small smile and know that you’ve survived what many have not. And even if you’ve made it here alone, losing a lot along the way – know that you made it here just like the rest of us who didn’t know if we would. We made it to the last day of this year – and you know what? 

We made it here, together.