Chaos. Frustration. Uncertainty. Fear. Those are the words that people might come up to their minds to explain 2020 in a single word.

 

The news got filled with sad topics: COVID-19 pandemic, violence between civilians and police officers, unstoppable wildfire, and the presidential election. While the election is supposed to be an exciting and hopeful topic, it ended up causing more violence and division in the country. 

The worldwide pandemic threw us for a big loop last year. The impact it has given us was almost life-changing. People lost their jobs. People lost their beloved ones. People had to let go of big chances to succeed. We all had to face the biggest challenge of a lifetime. When we uncontrollably fall out of what used to be normal, how do we get back up and move on? 

When something out of our control happens, there is no way but to adapt. Some got to change the path. Some got to change the location. And some just got to change the whole life plan and start from the very beginning. 

But if you can see this from different angles, you will find the greatest chance to really dig deep to get to know yourself and what you want in life. Time passes by with a blink of an eye. You thought you were in the right place in life and society, and the next thing you know, you were just stuck as a sad little cog in the wheel. A small mere piece of the society. The general demand in society gives you directions and creates flow in your life.

There are, in real life, few people who let their dreams take the wheel. Lots of people have been pretending to not know it. But everything that happened in 2020 allowed us to face how we have been and how different we can become once we accept that we can be more successful and improve our well-being.

Besides realizations of our hopeful future, we also faced the issue of mental health in the present.

Protests of civilians and fights between them and the law enforcement were unforgettable scenes of 2020. Diverse people raised their voices against unethical/unfair treatments of police officers toward people of color. What was fascinating for me personally was that young people self-educated themselves to correctly and legally claim their rights. While some protestors used the force of violence, a lot of people re-learned the backgrounds of issues and used social media to quickly spread the news and raise awareness of justice. 

In a world where things get done, be told, and happen virtually, using social media is possibly the specialty of young adults. Social media have been seen as a cause of their unhealthy mental conditions. But gradually, we start to reveal more healthy and meaningful ways to express their definition of “just society” through the tool called social media.

Maybe, certain isolation from “normal” might have triggered all of us to politically and socially active to get close to our future well-being which consists of our knowledge, voice, and will-power.

I guess people overwhelmed by pandemics and endless violence have rethought their dreams and justice. In the situation where you can lose everything, you start to see the things that you can’t give up.