2020. Man. What a year.

I think that this can be said to be one of the, collectively, worse years that we have experienced. Maybe not as a human race, but each of us as individuals. While it may have started out strong, the number of curve balls we were thrown in the end just went to show us how resilient we can be. How strong we are, when we come together. For that was where the divisiveness was worse, when people refused to let go of something for the greater good, for the health and safety of all.

But I don’t want to reflect back on everything that was bad. We all know what happened, we all know about covidiots and the abandoned spring plans. And summer plans. And fall plans. And winter plans. It doesn’t help anyone to hash this over yet one more time.

I want to reflect back on what was good in 2020. I need to look at a smaller scale, for that, but I still want to do it. This means I’m looking at my life in 2020, and I will be frank, I was a lot better off than many were. I’m not trying to brag, I know exactly how lucky I am that this was the case. A matter of where I was born, rather than any real merit on my part.

At the beginning of 2020, things were full of change. My husband had recently been accepted for disability payments, and I had spent the tail end of 2019 pursuing a new job. In January, I was offered the position, which was incredible. What was more incredible was that the new partner at my firm decided they couldn’t lose me. The other partners thought that was that, I was going to be gone, but he made the effort. He made the offer I wanted, and I got to stay in a job that, while I don’t particularly like working in general, I quite like, all things considered. I haven’t regretted the decision at all, and indeed am really glad I was given the choice. I liked my new coworkers that had been brought on board with the recent merge, and I didn’t want to part with them so soon.

Well, alright, that was all pre-world-wife-pandemic. As we all know, things changed pretty quickly.

At the start of things, which for me was mid-March, I was marched straight into a 2-week lock down as my landlords had just traveled home from Hawaii and my work and I decided caution was the better part of valor. That was actually kind of fun, my husband fed me lunch and kept healthy snacks available for me. Working from home is ultimately quite difficult, though. The struggles with technology are tough, and that lag at some points made me want to tear my hair out. But it wasn’t awful.

For our anniversary, we had more money available to us than we had had for a very long time. For the first time in years, we actually did something for our birthdays (which are a mere two weeks apart, so are often celebrated together). Rather than remain at home playing a video game yet again, we rented a cabin and went to the lake! Nobody was around, just us, our cat, and the baby birds in the birdhouse attached to our cabin. That was incredible, to be perfectly honest. They babies must have been newly born when we got there, but by then end of the week they were chirping up a storm, calling to mama bird to bring them food.

And yes, you read that right. Our cat joined us on the adventure. We have always, since we got him, wanted to take him with us camping or something similar. We knew he would absolutely love the experience, and we were not wrong. He was the best boy. He didn’t wander off, even when we took his leash off. Would just sit there, watching the world, nose to the wind. It was honestly quite wonderful and magical. He is such a good boy.

Things were quiet for awhile after that. Life went on, masks became more common, and washing my hands so often was leaving a dry mark on my wrist (still there, it comes and goes).

Then they weren’t.

We were casually looking at houses. And then we found the perfect one. Perfect. We had to have it.

So after confirming with my most wonderful mother that, if needed, she could assist with the down payment, we went and looked at the house. We made an offer.

And then we were told that there was already an accepted offer and that we should not have been allowed to view the home. Disappointment. Despair. But a sliver of hope, these things do fall through sometimes.

A call on the Monday confirmed – the deal fell through, our offer went in. The drama didn’t end there, it was a whirlwind of anxiety and multiple ups and downs, but in the end, well, I am writing this from my computer room in the new home I own with my husband, in large thanks to the efforts of my mom! Getting the mortgage sorted was a serious bitch, since it is a manufactured home and I have no credit! But we still got it.

For the rest of the year, we have just been living in this strange state of “Is this real?” and “Is this ours?”. It is real, it is ours. It is hard to wrap our heads around the fact that we are in a much better position than we have been in years, despite the state of the world in 2020. It was honestly one of the best years I personally have had. So much change.

I hope that those of you who had a bad year last year, find yourselves with a wonderful one this time around. I know things aren’t going to improve right away for most people, we are still a ways coming to heal from this virus and return to something that might look like normal. I suspect we’ll still be wearing masks and keeping our distance for much of 2021, but maybe this time with an end date in sight, rather than a spurious “we’ll keep our eye on things and update accordingly”.