2020 Was Not Our Year

Okay, so I think it’s safe to say that none of us saw this year coming. When New Year’s 2020 rolled around, I was perched securely on the top of a Saharan dune, a scarf wrapped around my head to keep the sand out of my eyes, surrounded by ten new friends, watching a too-gold-to-be-true sunset lazily bury itself down into the desert like a fat, sleepy turtle. I was truly, deeply, super fucking happy for the first time in kind of a while. And you know what? 2020 was going to be my year.

2020 has not been my year.

Has it been anyone’s? I mean, really.

A few months later, I was in the middle-of-nowhere Turkey, living my life, doing my thing. I hooked up to the sketchy wifi for the first time in a couple of days to check in with my parents – a routine we’ve set up so they know I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth.

“Hey Mom. I’m in Turkey. All is well. The food is awesome. Check out this view. *photo attached*”

“Hey Peeper. Love you. But you need to think about coming home. Have you heard about the global pandemic?”

The what now.

I got on the news. Borders were closing, flights were shutting down. Hm. Maybe it was time to start checking flights home, even though my next stop was supposed to be either Dubai or Budapest and I was hoping for another 3-4 months minimum. Of course, it might be a wild overreaction.

I checked flights. 700 CAD to get all the way back to Toronto from where I was, not too bad, but certainly a dent. Mom was insistent that I book right away. I’ll be honest, I kind of shoved her off a bit – it felt like an overreaction – and went to bed unworried.

The same flight was over 1400 CAD the next morning. Insert expletive here.

Long story short, I ended up sorting a flight with help from Canada (thanks, Mom, my wifi wasn’t coping), and a short hike, two long and precarious bus rides through icy mountain passes, three flights, and three days later, I made it back to Toronto in one piece. I spent too much time in the airport at customer service desks or staring as the departure board flipped to over 80% flight cancellations. People were getting stranded all around me, maybe permanently. I was on the very last flight to Canada from the Netherlands.

And over the course of my three flights, emails were coming in. I lost every single serious client over two days.

My income went from well over 2K to fifty bucks a month, and I landed on my parents’ couch for the next four months. They were more or less in the same boat.

I’m sure so many of you can relate. It’s been a wild ride.

We’re at the end of October now, and looking back, everything has weirdly worked out for the better. The sudden unemployment gave me a chance to reinvent with intention. This isn’t the first time I’ve built myself up from scratch – I know how to make it work, thank god. I’m now doing just fine and am back in my own place with my own business picking up strongly. My income is still not quite where it was, but give me another month or two.

My community has really come together to keep everyone safe and to fill needs, online and in person.

Whether the need is financial, mental, physical, or based in human rights/justice, everyone I know has strongly pushed to create a support network so that we can all stay afloat.

So if anything, this pandemic has taught me the value of community and the importance of trusting in your skill set. We have to freely give, where and when we can. We have to put community wellbeing and empathy over individualism. We have to keep building up our connections, our entrepreneurial spirit, and our inner bank of knowledge to help ourselves and others. We can’t get through this craziness alone, but I think we’ll pull through just about anything together. That goes not just for COVID, but for the racist craziness, the crashing economy, the political mayhem, and all the rest that 2020 has thrown our way.

So hold tight to your people.

Keep standing up for what you believe in. VOTE. Keep learning and trusting yourself to make it work. None of this is easy or fair or black and white – but we always have 2021 to change that if we keep pushing on together. Keep going! And let me know if there’s a way I can help support you.