IT’S THE SMALL THINGS
Alex Eduque
One week into the new year. As people are easing into 2021, nothing much has changed since last year. While some offices have resumed work, Zoom is still very much booming as the platform to meet and connect these days. When will life ever return to “normal” as we once knew it? Will it ever? Is the vaccine really our ticket to freedom? How will 2021 turn out? Are we going to find ourselves in a lockdown again? This year, or ever in this lifetime? These are questions that have crossed my mind in the past few days. Frankly, these questions remain rhetoric as no one quite knows the answer. We will only be able to answer these eventually – as we continue to live life on an everyday basis.
That is one of my biggest takeaways from 2020. As one who planned her days quite meticulously in the past, it was one of the biggest adjustments I had to face and establishing a routine to create a semblance of normalcy was one of the biggest challenges I had to overcome in the first few months of lockdown. I always found security in certainty and knowing what the next day brings. But I have also quite learned to relish in the slow living and just going on with life, as the days go by, come what may. Living in the present I have found has its benefits, and maximizing what each moment brings yields more meaningful memories. These are some of the notable learnings I intend to carry-on with me forever.
2020 was not all bad. In fact, it brought me one of the best memorable days in my life, and taught me a lot about who I truly was versus who I thought I was. It taught me to appreciate the smallest of successes and to celebrate the most minor of victories. True to the name of this column, it was all about being grateful for the small things, and looking at the happiness these bring about. Choosing to see the silver lining in the bleakest of situations does not only nurture one’s outlook in life, but one’s sanity as well.
Expectation versus reality. The contrast could not have been more stark than it was in 2020. We all had our expectations and ideals of the start of the new decade being the best year ever – almost invincible where nothing could go wrong – and then the world caught us all off guard at a time we expected it the least. If we did not have such great expectations, would we have been as disappointed? A reminder then again to appreciate the blessings as they come, and to roll with the punches as we encounter them.
- I am still uncertain as to what this year will bring about, but what I am most certain of is that there will always be something to smile about every single day, no matter what. We have to remain hopeful and optimistic – if we hope for the best, I believe that this will manifest even in the smallest ways in our everyday lives. In the same way that 2020 surprised us, 2021 may be the year where everything turns around just as quickly as our lives flipped in the year prior. Keep the faith, the hope and life going. Things will fall back into place – albeit maybe slowly, most definitely surely.