Here we are two months into 2021 and I can finally exhale. If you’re like me, you feel as though you barely made it out of 2020 in one piece. So much happened last year. We lost Kobe (let that one marinate), voted out a very toxic president, elected a woman of color as the Vice President of the United States, lost a talented actor that we affectionately call the Black Panther, and survived a global pandemic. And that’s the shortlist. 2020 was a tumultuous year. I can’t tell you how many times I said, “What else can go wrong?” And inevitably, guess what –something else would go wrong.
By December (the final hour of the final month) I made up my mind to enjoy the hand I was dealt. I realized there was nothing I could do about COVID-19, death, loss, and lack. I didn’t have the power to change any of those circumstances. None! Nada! Zilch! I was powerless to change the global economy or a global health crisis, but I could change how I thought of them.
Isn’t it funny how we allow circumstances to paint our perception? I focused on the things I didn’t want to see rather than acknowledging the blessings happening all around me. In 2020 — I spent four months working for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (a dream come true), graduated from college (the first in my family), moved into my dream apartment in beautiful downtown Oakland; AB 3121 was signed into law (California’s historic reparations bill), and I landed a dream job. Sure there were hiccups –plenty of hiccups, well who are we fooling, those were not hiccups, but my point is I chose to focus on the negative while overlooking blessings happening all around me.
As I type this, I am smiling the biggest smile because I know there is always a silver lining if I am bold enough to look for it. Sure, things may not always pan out the way I want them to, but such is life. And no matter how you slice it, life is a beautiful unfolding story with highs and lows, ebbs and flows.
In 2020, I was blessed in the storm!
