2020: The Year We’d All Wish to Forget

2020 proved to be the strangest year to date and some mornings I still feel as though I’m back in March when the first shutdowns were announced here in Ontario. It was the year where it felt like nothing happened and yet so much transpired.

For those who don’t know, I started off my 2020 with having gotten engaged to my long time partner Chris Barfitt which many will recognize from conventions as “the tall one who made sure I drank water and took time to eat something in between engaging with people”. I’ll say one thing, trying to plan a wedding during a pandemic has been... interesting and by interesting I mean we have four different spreadsheets with guests depending on the amount of people we are allowed to attend the wedding.

As the months in the year went on, I found myself retreating due to pandemic fatigue and other mental health problems that had arisen due to the environment I found myself in. The latter, I had never considered as something that could impact me and it was not until I’d gotten out that I was able to see just how fractured I’d become because of it. I’m in a much better place now but to say it did not impact my writing would be a lie, but that too is back on track, mostly.

What I missed most of all about 2020 were the conventions. I missed the hustle and bustle of getting ready to head out on weekends. To meet up with all of the wonderful friends I’ve made attending such events. It’s no doubt that it will be a while before we can attend once more but I hope now that it will be sooner rather than later.

I look forward to 2021 and the challenges it will bring, both from a career and person standpoint. The one thing the pandemic has hammered home even further is that there are still some things in our control and that we can take a stand, make a positive change and move forward.

That’s all I have for now and hopefully I’ll be back soon to post again. In the meantime, keep it awesome.