on 1/1/21 Hindsight is 2020
I’m not sure why I find that so hilarious. Maybe it’s because most of 2020 was about laughing so that you wouldn’t cry.
Whether prophetic or just ironic, 2020 was to be the Year of the Nurse. In a nationwide campaign, planned in 2019, nurses were to be celebrated for more than one day this year. Little did any of us know just how true that was going to be. 2020 has been a year that has highlighted the hero in all of us. All of healthcare has been in the spotlight for a good nine months now. All around the world mask, goggle, gown, PPE wearing individuals have been front and center. Their stories have been joyful, awe-inspiring and the stuff of nightmares.
The two-sided story, of most healthcare workers, (and people in general) in 2020 has been told around the world in every language. The dichotomy of holding/feeling two things at the same time is the theme of our shared story. 2020 has shown most people that they can have sadness and joy; feel loss and gain; hope and despair at the same time. Nurses have been horrified at the conditions in which they are having to care for patients; and high-fiving in the hall because a patient with Covid was discharged.
In the year 2019, B.C. (you know you know what that means- Before Covid) it was as if the world held so much hope for the year 2020. You heard multiple stories of people saying 2020 was going to be their year; 2020 Vision, etc. It was a universal feeling and a prediction of sorts. Most people are more than happy to see 2020 leave; here’s your hat, what’s your hurry; don’t let the door hit you on the way out; good riddance. But not so fast. Maybe we could take this last day of 2020 to name and appreciate some of the valuable lessons it taught us all.
We came together as only a pandemic can make a universe. Our world is so small now; when we saw Italy fall to her knees in early Spring we knew we would be affected very soon after. When travel was shut down and people were asked to stay home we saw neighbors care for each other like at no other time. We saw families enjoy all of the time at home and together. Schools and businesses pivoted and then pivoted again to accommodate so much change. The major life-lesson of “appreciate what you have” was taught over and over again. What was happening in NYC was about to happen in Billings, MT and everywhere in between, above, below, and beside. We, as humans, experienced this year as a collective like no other year in modern history.
Take what you will from 2020; but don’t wish it away. Take the good, learn from the hard/bad, look forward. Whether you are a nurse, a CNA, a Respiratory Therapist, a doctor or any of the other special people who work in healthcare, you did good. You are facing a new year after a one that showed the world the grit, the love, the passion, the guts of the people who are called to care for other people. You are the ones who spent the year in the trenches and are still here to tell the story. To feel all the feels. Nobody won in 2020. We survived. Now we can move into 2021 with our hindsight being 2020 (still funny). We can see clearly why we do what we do. We can see that we can be both proud and devastated.
Happy New Year. Here’s to a clean slate. Go write your next page.