6 Things I’m Extra Thankful for in 2020
This time last year, I was sitting at Raleigh-Durham International Airport waiting to board a flight to New York City to meet my mom for a weeklong mother-daughter vacation. This year looks much different.
2020 has been a challenge, no doubt about that. Filled with ups and downs, successes and failures, and lots of obstacles to overcome, it’s been a year unlike any other before. What started as a seemingly normal year escalated quickly into a year of worldwide lockdown, quarantine, and isolation, three words that effectively weren’t in my vocabulary until March. Even now, more than seven months into an unprecedented global pandemic, we’re still dealing with crippling uncertainty about the future, record COVID-19 cases day over day, round two stay home orders in many states and across the world, and financial and economic impacts that will linger on for many years to come. How crazy is that?
As someone who loves to be continually creative, live inspired, meet new people, cultivate relationships, and travel and explore new places as often as I possibly can, pandemic life has really knocked the wind out of my sails this year. I’m sure many of you can relate to that sentiment. Here in this moment, I want nothing but to indulge in normalcy again. I want to imagine things will be better in the coming months. I want to look through my rose-colored glasses and tell myself that everything will be alright. But I’m not wholly convinced it will be. At least to some degree.
Today, after more than a half year of limited travel, work from home, social distancing, and minimal in-person interaction with family and friends, I’m still struggling to find the balance between safely going out and respectfully staying in. With each passing day, I feel pandemic fatigue closing in on me and though I know it’s my job to be safe, realistic, and responsible about what I do with my time in this new normal, it’s been hard to fight off the urge to let my guard down completely. Emotionally, I’ve been all over the place this year, waffling between days of sadness for all the time we’ve lost that we’ll never get back and days overcome with gratitude to have such a good life filled with success, opportunity, and a strong support system around me.
The way I see it, there’s no shortage of reasons to dwell on the negative in 2020. Yet despite a year of complete uncertainty, social and political unrest, and genuinely hard times, 2020 has been the sort of gratitude-inspiring year I think we all needed to some degree. Amid the turmoil in the United States and across the world, many people have had to resiliently overcome one unimaginable hardship after another — mentally, emotionally, and financially. And while there’s no one-size-fits-all mode to surviving a pandemic, it’s been truly remarkable to watch people turn some of the lowest lows of our lifetime into positive life lessons and silver linings.
As crummy a year as it’s been, there’s still so much to be thankful for, wouldn’t you agree? For me, 2020 has been an eye opening change of pace, a year that’s taught me so much about myself and what it means to slow down, be patient, support those in need, find new ways to live inspired, and not take anything for granted. Sure, 2020 threw us a curveball we weren’t expecting, but life is not always rainbows and butterflies, it’s also about overcoming adversity when the going gets tough. Pandemic or no pandemic, there are still many reasons to approach all facets of life with a mind of thankfulness today and always — we just have to be willing and able to see the good, even on the darkest of days.
The older I get, the more passionately I feel that gratitude expression helps cultivate a positive life and keeps you grounded in appreciation for all the things you have that you sometimes (or always) take for granted. This year has put the exclamation mark on that statement. I’ve learned a lot this year. I’ve grown a lot this year. I’ve become more intentional of how I spend my time this year. And those things make me feel so happy, fulfilled, and appreciative for each new day I’m granted in this crazy life.
In the spirit of gratitude, here are 6 things I’m feeling extra thankful for in 2020.
I’m thankful for good health.
Without question, this year has been a true reminder that good health is the foundation of life. Pandemic life has left me feeling extremely grateful to be young, healthy, and free of preexisting conditions that would otherwise put my health and well-being at risk this year. In addition to good physical health, I’m also grateful for good mental health. Though I’ve had my days of feeling knocked down, beaten up, and bruised, I’m so grateful to have the mental fortitude to stay mentally strong despite a year of isolated and uninspiring times. Good health (physical and mental) is definitely something I took for granted prior to 2020, but it’s something I will strive to be grateful for with each new day I’m given from this point forward. We’d be nothing without our health, 2020 has made that abundantly clear.
I’m thankful to have a safe home.
As we’ve spent the majority of our year at home, I’ve come to realize I’m incredibly lucky to have a solid roof over my head and a safe home filled with people I love to spend my quarantined days with. Having a safe place is not a guarantee for all people and I feel so empathetic for those who don’t have a good home life in these days of high stress and unpredictability. I feel sad for all the children living in abused or neglected homes. I feel bad for families devastated by unemployment, loss of income, and inability to put food on the table. I feel helpless when I see the stories of people struggling with toxic home situations as a home is supposed to be a safe zone; it’s nothing but unfair that many don’t have the luxury of experiencing a good home life in that capacity. I have so much gratitude for my situation, but I also know and understand that others have had their worst nightmares come true this year. I have a safe place to land at the end of each day and wow, I’m so grateful for that.
I’m thankful for my family.
Living 1000 miles from home, time spent with family is something I absolutely never take for granted. Without question, spending six years geographically separated from family has been quite difficult, even more so during the pandemic. I was lucky to see my family for 3-4 weeks over the summer due to a furlough at my company and I’m so glad I decided to safely make the trip back home. I miss easy access to my family every day which makes me appreciate all the opportunities I get to spend with them. Whether they come here to North Carolina, I travel back home to Wisconsin, or we meet somewhere in the middle to vacation and enjoy each other’s company, I look forward to moments with my family the most.
But then I have my North Carolina family — Alex, Klein, and Mogul. Without them, my life would be dull and boring, this I know for sure. They make my house a home, they make me smile on my worst days, and they show me unconditional love when they know I need it most. If I have to be separated all these miles from my family, I’m glad I get to spend my days with my three boys. They bring out the best in me, they really do. For that, my heart always feels so filled with happiness and gratitude.
I’m thankful for technology.
First things first, work from home wouldn’t have been possible without today’s technology. While many people have had to mask up and head to in-person work every day since March, I’ve been fortunate to do my job from the safety and comfort of my own home. I feel incredibly grateful for the flexibility to work from home and even more grateful to work for a company that continues to let us work remote while COVID-19 cases spike all around us. I’ll take this moment to give a nod to all the front line workers out there who have had to put their own health at risk to keep hospitals and other essential businesses fully operational in these trying times. I appreciate all of YOU too!
I’m also thankful for technology as it’s allowed us to stay connected with those we love without having to risk getting sick or infecting others. Because of things like Zoom, FaceTime, and Facebook Messenger, we have the ability to see, hang out with, and laugh with family and friends in a safe, socially distant capacity. As someone who lives far away from family, I’ve been utilizing these technologies a long time, but I haven’t really been grateful for them until this year when the viability of travel and in-person reunion weren’t realistic options.
I’m thankful for travel and travel memories.
As the saying goes: “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” Doesn’t that ring true this year? Looking back at 2020, my last major travel experience was a business trip to Saltillo, Mexico back in February, weeks before the world shut down. I’m so glad to have been able to take that trip, but I never imagined travel would come to a screeching halt the way it did soon thereafter. I love and miss traveling so much and I hate that it’s been taken away from us this year. I had so many fun travel ideas planned and quite frankly, coronavirus ruined the possibility of them all. It’s a sad, disappointing, and unfortunate reality, but it’s the situation we’re in nonetheless.
Looking back and reflecting on previous travel experiences has been a saving grace for me this year. In the early days of lockdown, I started to find comfort in looking back on my pre-coronavirus travel memories, something that helped me feel dramatically better about the state of the world and the new normal we find ourselves in today. I’m so thankful for all the traveling I’ve been fortunate to do so far, but honestly, I can’t wait to get back out into the big beautiful world and explore some more. I guarantee my first real vacation post-pandemic will be one for the books, just wait and see.
I’m thankful for my blog.
Gosh, if I didn’t have Just Jen Things, where would I be today? Alex bought me the domain for my blog for Christmas 2018 and I’ve been writing and blogging away since then. No question, blogging has been the shining light and creative spark of 2020, a way for me to stay positive and share bits of life, love, and so more with such a supportive network of friends, family, fellow bloggers, and complete strangers. Truth be told, Just Jen Things has been nothing short of the creative outlet I always wanted to have but never knew I needed until this year. Writing is therapeutic to me — a sort of stress relieving, anxiety-erasing, and fun way to express feelings, show compassion, and share a warm cup of coffee and a little bit of sunshine on a dark, gloomy day.
Though my blogging consistency has been all over the place this year, I’ve published so many thoughtful blogs in 2020. I’m a firm believer in quality over quantity, so I post what feels right when it feels right. Here are some of my favorite Just Jen Things posts from 2020 (so far):
There’s so much to be grateful for, even when it feels like there’s not. 2020 has been the kind of year we’ll all look back on someday and think, “Yeah, we made it through that year, we can make it through anything.” I look forward to better days, but for now, I’ll continue to be thankful, appreciative, and blessed for all the things I have today.
What are you grateful for this year?
Enjoy!
JB