Positive Things I’m Taking from 2020

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and I have mixed feelings about it. In part, I feel quite positive about it – it’s been a year that we could never have expected, so it feels positive to even be here with a positive outlook. But on the over hand, at some points it’s been bloody awful.

Still, I’m so grateful to be sat here with everything I have and having achieved the things I’ve achieved so far this year, without trying to sound full of it. It’s cliche, but I feel like I’m in a completely different place to what I was at the start of the year, and than I’ve ever felt at the end of any other year.

Blogging

This time last year I was on a long hiatus from blogging – my last blog post had been October 2017 – but I’d chosen to slowly pick it back up again, and it was lucky I did with all the spare time I’d end up with later in the year. At the end of April I decided to start taking it a little more seriously, and updated my blog to a ‘.com’ website, bought a nice-looking template for it, and started setting up my social media for it. I started thinking much more about what I wanted from my blog and what I wanted it to be like. I shared more of my life than I ever had before and, even though sometimes it was a little bit of a fail, I learnt a lot about the world of blogging.

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Moving Out

I made some big steps in moving out from home too. For the first time I reached out to the experts in the business and started looking at my options. Where before I’d thought that I was way off ever being able to buy my own home, I discovered that I was actually very much in reach. Obviously the rest of the year then put a big of a stop to that for the meantime, but I found out that I was in a position where the longer I save the higher my options will go, so whenever I’m back up and running with normal life a bit more I’m pretty much ready to go!

Realisations

With everything going on I realised the amazing support network I have around me. Both people that were in my everyday life before this, or people that I already knew face to face, and people who came out to support me through blogging that I’ve still never met. I discovered how amazing the blogging community can be, and made some really valuable blogging friends around and about.

And it’s easy to forget the things I achieved before the world had changed too. At the start of the year I ran two half marathons in two weeks, which was an elaboration on the previous achievements I’d made.

Part of any achievement from 2020 that has to be mentioned is being able to keep up your relationships. In my case it was my friendships, and I really found out what it means to keep in touch with the people who mean the most to you. There were people who made the effort to make sure you were doing okay, and who weren’t a struggle to have catch ups with regularly, and even those who needed a little more organising but were really there when you needed them. Sadly, you always lose a few along the way, but focusing on the ones who mean the world to you is a great achievement, particularly from this year. I was one of the lucky ones who also came out of 2020 with a new relationship, so that’s always an achievement when there’s a pandemic on the loose.

So, the only thing that’s left is to say here’s to 2021. It’s not quite the ending we had hoped for – I think at one point we’d all hoped that we would be waving goodbye to 2020 and heading into a much different new year, but currently that’s not meant to be. Whatever you’re doing to bring in the new year I hope you have a wonderful time!