The End of 2020

Compared to most people, we have weathered 2020 quite well. The story of 2020 for us was one of many changes. Of course, COVID-19 was the cause of some of that, but not all. We had never been stagnant in previous years, but had instead tackled big subjects, like the birth of our children or a new house. This year we didn’t have one big challenge like that, but we had a lot of different things come up, some bigger than others.

I started off the year with a new job at a new company. It was a good job, and an opportunity to learn lots of new things, notably Git and ReactJS, as well as NestJS and a few other backend NodeJS frameworks. Despite the new start, I was clear to take a trip with my family to Wuhan during the Winter break in February. COVID-19 crushed that plan. We followed the news closely, and at the time would have probably gone to Wuhan anyway had the airline not cancelled the flight. Over the course of the next few weeks we would find that it was for the best.

Thankfully, COVID-19 failed to cancel the Rambouillet Half-Marathon, which I completed at the beginning of March. France had put out an order that gatherings of over one thousand people were not allowed just the day before, but that was too late to stop the event, which went on anyway. I knew that I would have pain in my knee, but I finished the event anyway. Pretty soon afterward, the order to stay at home was sent out, and the financial market took a serious hit, effectively ending my new job.

Thankfully, an even bigger opportunity immediately filled that gap. I became a CTO / Lead Developer at a small company, and have been quickly gaining experience and increasing my skills ever since. With all the missed plans, missed school, and work changes that were brought on by the Coronavirus, it was a big relief for us to be able to take a long vacation to Higgins Lake back in the United States during the summer. That was a big break for us, and allowed us to get away from the pressure of quarantines and work for a few weeks.

Back at work and back to school, we’ve gotten a lot done since then. Miriam has been working on her spelling, reading, writing, basic addition and even a little subtraction. She has been making so many drawings that I think she must have given one to her teachers each week, and left so many at home that we can’t keep track of them all. Drawing has definitely been her go-to activity this year, and now after receiving her Christmas presents, painting is her new thing. I’ve even gotten her interested in playing LittleBigPlanet on the PlayStation 3. She can do the easiest levels, having overcome her fear of failure on the simplest tasks.

Meanwhile, I’ve just finished my reading list for this year. This is a big accomplishment, given that I was lagging behind severely after six months. The books which I read this year were pretty interesting, and I’m proud of myself for selecting and finishing my list of twelve books for the year. I read some pretty big history books as well as some shorter adventure novels. I must have covered at least six books in the last three months of the year.

My saintly wife has made having the holidays at home a treat. Though Halloween was pretty much cancelled because of the pandemic, we had wonderful meals at home for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our little family of four had a great time together celebrating the holidays. For me, this is a good sign that though the pandemic may not be over quickly, and in fact even when it is over all may not go back to normal, we always have each other. We don’t just stick it out together, we have fun together.

2020 was obviously the year of the Coronavirus, but that was just the foundation of many of the challenges that we faced and conquered. The next year will bring more challenges, and we look forward to tackling those too. Missing out on school, work, and seeing our family is not fun in and of itself, but those situations make us stronger. This is good, because I’m convinced that though we may have seen the worst of the Coronavirus, the pandemic itself is not the biggest problem we face, and the next year may prove to be just as challenging, if not more, than this past year has been.