Between 2020 and 2021

The year 2020 is nearing the end, and the possibility of creating a new start in 2021 is becoming more and more realistic. Should we expect a turn of events when the clock strikes midnight? Well, of course not, that would be a fool’s errand, but I can’t seem to escape the notion that some people are looking forward to that. There is this slim chance that there will be a global turnaround, but I wouldn't put all of my eggs in one basket.

Before we venture onto the unknown lands of the future, we need to acknowledge that 2020 happened, and everything it entailed. For many of us, it was a hardship, a difficult period. We are lucky we made it out alive, and we are still breathing, walking towards change and new problems to be encountered. As catastrophic as this year was, there were also occasional glimmers of human kindness, of unity against a greater evil, and of the strength of spirit.

The vaccine reassured us that there is a way out. That this monster of sickness can be defeated. However, as the vaccine might have in some degree solved the health problem, the economic hindrances are still on their way. There will be a global decrease in the quality of living, but with enough work, and struggle, we just might come out of it stronger and better. Not to mention that loads of people have lost their jobs already - pilots with nowhere to fly and the bookstore owners with collected dust on the shelves.

We are living at a time, that will leave its’ mark on our personal history, apart from the history of the world. The future textbooks will mention humanity surviving a plague, which we underestimated at the beginning. Now we are paying for the consequences.

Who might have known that a flu-like sickness would cause such a disturbance?

2021 should be better.

But will it?

It is that moment, when we don’t know where to go, and how to proceed next, that our greatest inventions spark to our minds. It is the need to change according to our surroundings that makes people such versatile creatures. It is too dark at night - let’s create fire; transport is difficult - let’s invent the wheel; an illness is a perpetrating murderer around the globe - let’s create a vaccine. This is just a handful of examples of what the human mind is capable of inventing when pressure is applied.

2021 will be for sure a year of inventions, and new ideas being spun around. A year of new businesses to help the old ones out, a year of fighting together to make an income worth living for. Those inventions will not be isolated instances of greatness, but a global happening. People will choose a better version of tomorrow, a new idea for their being.

Because that is what we do. We survive under any circumstances, we fight with time in order to make our impact on the world. Even, if it costs us our own lifespan, we will create, we will do, and we will survive. Because that is what makes us human.

The world of 2021 will be different, but not in the ways we wish it will be. It will still be a struggle, but one with hope at the end, one that might just finish. And after we come to that point in our lives, we will face another struggle. This time, we will be better equipped with the experience of days from the past.

2021, be gentle on us and give us courage for another year. And please, don’t surprise us as 2020 did. We are a bit tired, but still standing.