2021 was a bummer, 2021 was 2020 part two, 2021 was all about adjustment

We started 2021 with a vaccine on the way and zero COVID-19 variants. We end 2021 having to deal with Delta variant and now Omicron variant as the dominant mutations of COVID-19.

Ah yes, COVID-19 — created in 2019, ruining 2020, this disease was something that coulda, shoulda, woulda been in our rearview mirror during 2021. But, more dangerous than the virus … were the entities and personalities who spread misinformation for their own profit.

Honestly, there was much about 2021 which was better than 2020. So, we’re grateful for that.

A big part of life in 2021 was continuing to deal with all of the issues we had in 2020, while also attempting to re-enter normal society. It was liberating and exhausting. While 2020 objectively sucked… it did offer a small silver lining of having a pause to “stop and reassess everything” in our lives and within our society. We got a chance to get off the wheel/treadmill of society, which had been churning, increasingly rapidly, for decades.

Our ability to stop and reset in 2020 came with the promise of 2021 allowing us a chance to move forward. We did move forward but there was nothing normal about it… at least in the sense of what normal meant in 2019. The fact that “back to normal” will likely never quite mean the resumption of early 2020 where we left it, is a bummer.

The end of 2021 brings us to the big fat reminder that nothing is constant, aside from change. There were parts of 2021 that gave us real hope. There were also parts that actually were more stress inducing than 2020. While 2021 clearly was an overall step in the right direction… our reemergence into society brought us face to face with each other again after a long time “in our own bubble”. For many of us, we actually missed our virtual settings and our 20 second commute to the dining room “office/table”. People missed the fact that we could literally turn our screen off if we didn’t want to deal with somebody in our face.

2021 brought us back into the “real world” kind of… sort of… but also having to straddle a new hybrid of 2019 life with 2020 life. The first time in known history human beings had “the best of both worlds” and “the worst of both worlds” simultaneously. Virtual life/ Real life as a new hybrid called normal.

There is no point for us to speculate on 2022… and that’s cool.

Thank you 2021 for offering hope… you weren’t the perfect transformation we had hoped you would be… but you were a reminder that there is never going to be a perfect transformation to our day or our life or our society. We have to make our way in an increasingly complex environment… and for those of us who made it to the end of 2021 and hopefully get to start out in 2022, you helped us sharpen our elbows and our focus to keep adjusting for whatever 2022 will bring.