Firstly let me start by saying happy new year! Surely 2021 has to be better than the shit show that was 2020. I rarely swear on my blog, or in real life for that matter, but 2020 definitely deserves a good swear word or two. Wouldn’t you agree?
I was going to start this sentence by saying how you may have noticed that my blog has been bit a quiet for the past month or two, but that would be presumptuous of me to assume that enough people actually read my blog to even notice my lack of blogging so let’s scrap that and just say that I’m delving back into the blogging world on a more permanent basis.
2020 was a year of change. The year where children spent more time at home than ever before. The year that office workers turned their homes into offices and work attire consisted of pyjamas.
It was the year of zoom calls, home education, family walks, an uptake in cycling and panic buying toilet roll. It was also the year where we lost too many people to this horrid virus.
It’s so easy to think of all the negative things that happened in 2020, but being a ‘glass half full’ kinda gal, I like to look to look on the positive side of life. I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and that every cloud has a silver lining. (Even if at times that silver lining is hiding behind a thunder storm, hurricane or tornado, it’s there. Sometimes you just need to search a little harder for it).
So here are some ‘2020 Silver Linings’ I’ve managed to dig up
- Starting with animals and South Africa. A group of dogs were trained to protect rhinos from poachers.
- I was overjoyed when Scotland became the first country to make period products free. The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill, which passed unanimously, means that local authorities must make sure that period products are accessible free of charge. According to NPR, schools and colleges must make period products freely available to students. Designated public places have to do the same. How amazing is that!
- The COVID pandemic drove a record drop in global carbon emissions in 2020. Global greenhouse gas emissions fell by roughly 2.4 billion tons this year, a 7% drop from 2019 and the largest decline on record.
- Captain Sir Tom Moore raised £38.9m for charity.
- Kamala Harris became the first female, first Black, first South Asian US Vice President-Elect.
- It was also the year where I discovered I do not suit a fringe – thank goodness for working from home!
I could go on, but as you can see, some good did come out of 2020.
The Year Ahead
As we look ahead to the year in front of us, let’s look upon it as a chance to use what we’ve learnt from 2020 to our advantage. I’m not making any resolutions this year. There’ll be no crash diets or epiphanies. Just the chance to live 2021 as best as we can. Until next time…happy new year.
