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What I Have Learned From the Worst Year Ever: Part 2

As promised, here is the second part of my reflections from 2020. You can read the first part about my learnings about the "World" here. 

Friends & Family

In terms of my interactions with others, I think there is this idea that extroversion provides some form of an advantage to introversion. I have finally come to terms with the balance of introversion and extroversion I enjoy. I have noticed that the number of people that I need to be happy with doesn't need to be in the hundreds. In reality, those that I genuinely believe I can have a substantial conversation with and genuinely derive happiness from can be counted on my hands. And, I am more than ok with that. This past year has also questioned my idea of friendship and human connection generally. Quarantine has invented new ways for social interaction - Facetime and Netflix parties became the norm. But, not seeing my friends every day has forced each of our conversations to be more meaningful - more substantial than I have had after even years of friendship. This unsaid, mutual understanding that each moment of interaction was fleeting has shifted the depth of my friendships. 

2020 has really allowed me to understand how valuable my family is in my life. Yes, spending every hour in one building for the last 9 months has been filled with its fair share of arguments over what is for dinner and what TV series to watch next, but I would never want to annoy any other group of people. My family has supported me through every challenge and struggle but also been there for every celebration and victory. I am so grateful that my family has been healthy and happy and that my parents can support our family from the safety of our home.

Self

Welcome to the most vulnerable portion of this post - where I deep dive into myself. So strap in and let's get real personal. I think I have finally mustered up the courage and am also slightly tired enough to resort to a list. 

    1. I have learned how much I love doing things by myself. I like this - introspection, reflection. I literally made a blog all about this. I like exploring topics freely: it's liberating. 

    2. I have realized how much I romanticize the future and have solely worked hard for the future. I have learned that everything is temporary - who ever expected that the world would shut down for a year? There is so much joy I have found in "romanticizing the present" and deciding that I enjoy working hard, the process, and there is so much happiness to be found in the step of life I am currently in. This is a choice I can make every day. However, this is not a conclusion I reached automatically. The months of the summer and fall were very challenging as I dealt with a lot of college preparation, lots of classwork, and volleyball (still so lucky to even have these options). I dealt with feelings of disappointment and exhaustion - as did so many of us. But, understanding that the future is not going to be a magical fairyland and that I can be deserving of happiness in the present is a work in progress but definitely a perspective I am coming to have. 

    3. Tying in with the previous point, I think I have been hesitant to make changes to my life and almost procrastinated them. If I have decided that there is something I would like to improve in my life - exercise more, wake up earlier, drink more water, read more,  I have always decided to wait till the next "nice" start. The new year, the beginning of the next month, the next start of the week - sometimes even the top of the hour if I am procrastinating on doing work. As I have started to establish some of these changes, I have realized I am not gonna make a change in the future. I just need to do it now. For example, if you have new years' resolutions and forget to follow them, don't worry, you can still make beneficial changes on January 2nd, May 18th, or even December 31st, and each of these changes is still awesome and valuable!

    4.  A lot of my mindset around health and fitness had been flawed previously, and I wasn't taking care of myself in a sustainable way. Learning to fuel myself with whatever I enjoy and learning to move to become stronger and healthier this past year has been incredible. 

    5. I have continued to learn how much I do not know. I need to get better at recognizing when I don't know. And when I don't, I need to turn to books, podcasts, and others to then learn to the best of my extent. 

    6. Finally, any change I try to implement in my life needs to be met with equal patience. There are days when I won't drink enough water, weeks where I won't post a blog, months when I struggle. But, each time the opportunity for improvement has not slipped away. 

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this post. I know I certainly enjoyed being open and honest with my learnings (it was honestly quite therapeutic and full circle) and hopefully, my thoughts did not come across as overly cliche and had an ounce of new insight or perspective for you. To whatever extent you read these posts, I appreciate it. In whatever form your 2020 was, it is all completely valid. I hope your 2021 is filled with happiness and good health, and remember that masks and physical distancing are still very cool, still very important, and still can help save very many lives. 

Thanks for reading, 

Janvi :)



Comments

  1. Lalit GoelJanuary 12, 2021 at 5:20 AM

    This pandemic has brought in a paradigm shift for most of the people by way of thinking process, relationships, new learnings, and most of all looking within own self. Half the battle in life for each person is won with accepting the need, recognition and acceptance of own flaws, inconsistencies, inadequacies and/or its antonyms; the remaining half by finding solutions to it, planning how to, and then implementing it on way to attain perfection, or to create a win-win situation, or to create opportunities out of every adversity!
    I am so glad to find you, Janvi at such a young age, are already making rapid strides towards it! Bravo! Do keep it up!
    Your lucid style is invigorating and forces one to rethink about own life's doings and thoughts; indeed, it provides plenty of food for thought. Thank you

    ReplyDelete

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