Family, Community, and a Belief in Something Bigger Than Yourself
A decade’s worth of lessons in one chaotic year of life.
Exactly one year ago on January 1st, 2020 at 12:45 AM, I logged my first entry into my new leather-bound journal I had received as a gift from my sister: “The New Year, the new decade has come.” With grand visions of what the 2020s would bring, I reflected on the ups and downs of the 2010s and how I arrived at that moment, ringing in the new year and decade to come. The journal entry concludes with some words of wisdom to my future self:
Embrace change. Change is inevitable; embrace the challenges that come with it. Do not be afraid to fail. Failure plants the seeds of success. Love tirelessly and cherish precious moments. Life is fragile, treat it as so. Pray. The good Lord always provides and has a plan. Pray in times of comfort and distress. Finally, remember what is written on the cover of this journal. In the words of Lincoln, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
Before a modern day global pandemic was ever a thought, I encouraged myself to welcome the unpredictability that life inevitably throws your way. Even so, I did not know that 2020 would bring the unpredictability typical of an entire decade’s worth of ups and downs. Today I reflect on the relevance of those words I wrote in my journal one year ago, and attempt to decipher what we can learn from the infamous year that is thankfully now behind us.
Family
Love tirelessly and cherish precious moments.
I spent all but one month of 2020 at home, mostly in the company of my parents. An extra year’s worth of time with your parents isn’t something most college kids wish for, but it is something I and my parents are forever grateful for. The too oft-forgotten little moments that complete the picture of a day have become the centerpieces of our new norm. While once a blur, the socially-distanced hellos, goodbyes, and light conversations to those you love are now the highlights in our newly discovered, discontinuous virtual world. I have learned to slow down and appreciate the brief interactions I used to take for granted. Time waits for no one; viruses transmit, natural disasters rage on, and diseases continue to progress in the ones you love the most. We all have but a brief breath of life on this Earth, so love tirelessly and cherish the precious moments of life before they are gone.
Life is fragile, treat it as so.
At the time of writing this, there have been 1.82 million deaths related to COVID-19 worldwide, nearly 19% of those, Americans. Numbers this large are sometimes hard to imagine. To give you some perspective, if I wanted to distill all the lives lost into the text you have read so far, each letter and character would have to represent over 800 human lives lost. Over 800 lives, souls, brothers, sisters, parents, friends, coworkers, and loved ones distilled into the pen stroke of one single letter, one character, or most simply put, the period at the end of this sentence. To that end, a 9/11’s worth of lives lost would be contained merely within the first four letters of this article’s title: F, a, m, and i. More gravely, the number of U.S. COVID-19 deaths in the month of December alone would be represented by the following 91 characters. This past year has taught us that life is fragile, so treat it as so.
Community
Embrace change. Change is inevitable; embrace the challenges that come with it.
Moving to a university nearly 1,000 miles away from home sparked an unfamiliar change in my life. The new frontier offered a change in scene, a new environment to explore my interests, and a fresh set of voices and ideas to broaden my worldview and understanding. The time spent away from home in a city of 120,000 strengthened my appreciation for the community of 1,200 that helped raise me. That change was uncomfortable, but necessary at the time. Growth comes from change and I grew a lot. This year has been a great example of how change sparks growth. Healthcare workers adapted and overcame dire challenges on the frontlines of the pandemic. Small businesses found unique and innovative ways to provide to their local customers in a safe manner. Above all, the global stage that the virus has occupied has turned our focus towards the local stages around us. Small communities came together like tribes in times of war. Donations were made and critical food and supplies were distributed. The bonds within communities were strengthened, even as national tensions were heightened. This past year we have learned that changes are inevitable. Embrace the change, for if we do not change, the tragedies of the past become the realities of the future.
Do not be afraid to fail. Failure plants the seeds of success.
This piece of advice is pretty straight forward and applies in all aspects and stages of life. The late Bobby Kennedy put it best when he said that “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” In 2021 and beyond, dare to fail and to fail greatly.
A Belief in Something Bigger Than Yourself
Pray. The good Lord always provides and has a plan. Pray in times of comfort and distress.
This past year has kept billions confined to their homes, to their own thoughts, observing outwards from the inside. With the world in its current state and with extended opportunities of deep reflection, it is easy to grow weary and to be filled with sadness or defeat. Oftentimes, the greatest battles are fought in the shadows of the arena, within oneself and without spectation. It is in those moments that many search for solace, for companionship, for greater meaning. For me, I find my greater purpose through my Christian faith. That being said, believing in something bigger than yourself is not strictly confined by the ideas and principles of any one religion. In fact, one thing that makes us human is our ability to dream, to wonder, and to believe in possibilities beyond our primitive tendencies. There is great power in daring to imagine past the conceivable. It is that same spirit that built the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, that put an American democracy in action, that developed the first modern vaccine, and that put a man on the moon.
But what to believe in? You can believe, as the late Martin Luther King Jr. did, that the arc of the moral universe is long, but that it bends towards justice. You can believe as I do that unity is more powerful than division, and love more powerful than hate. Choose to believe in kindness, compassion, a cleaner and gentler world, or in a better tomorrow. In all cases, believe in something bigger than yourself, for it is those thoughts and imaginative ideas that carry the torch of the human spirit beyond the now and into the yet to come.
My message now for 2021 and the years beyond is simple. Love passionately and dare to think boldly. Cherish the present and embrace the unknown. Learn from the past and provide for the future. The world requires the very best of each of us. Carry the torch. Embrace the challenge. Family, community, and a belief in something bigger than ourselves will collectively continue the spirit that defines what it means to be human.
