I had plans for 2020.
This time last year, I was just settling into a new job. I had just joined a D&D group that met every Tuesday, I was writing in coffee shops in the evenings, and my family and I were actively planning an international trip for the end of summer. I had tickets to see Anastasia: the Musical in April. On New Year’s, my boyfriend and I had started walking a few miles along the river to a main street, where we brunched or had drinks, and Ubered home. It was a great new tradition and we were excited to get rolling. I even bought an Instax camera that I could use to document days out.
Save for being an election year, it wasn’t set out to be a particularly usual or unusual.
Looking back, the only I can describe it is to say that it felt like things were smooth. Steady. Descriptors you can only really give in hindsight, once you’ve hit a particularly big bump in the road and those things you thought were rocks before? Mere pebbles.
We all know what the big bump in the road was. It has firmly cemented its chapter in future AP World History books.
For me, it meant that my mom was hospitalized in February, with a mystery illness that would only be diagnosed months later when doctors would admit that, yes, it was here that early.
I started working from home part time in March, and D&D, coffeeshops, and brunches swiftly became Before Time activities. They were replaced with Animal Crossing, new hobbies (painting and puzzles), and at home movie premieres. As you can see, Nim also tried out some new hobbies.
In early April, we celebrated Chase’s birthday with my best attempt at turning our porch into a fancy bistro. For our anniversary in May we visited a wildflower field. For my birthday in June, my best friend made us an amazing picnic in the park. This was perfect because cooking in June was impossible for us due to a kitchen reno (we discovered in April that once we were eating every meal at home, not having a dishwasher was no longer an option).
In July I finished the first draft of a novel I’d been working on and in August I got better at painting. In September, my mom was hospitalized again due to long-term COVID complications and while she was in the hospital, I helped her adopt a kitten. September is also when Chase and I went ring shopping…
BECAUSE IN OCTOBER WE GOT ENGAGED!!
Like many other couples, COVID and quarantine was a time of reflection.. of what we missed from before, of what we were currently grateful for, of the things we want to change, and of our goals for the future. And we decided that what we really wanted was to get married.
Which brings me to 2021. I think we’re all past the point of looking to the future with any truly certain plans, but here are my personal goals for the next eleven months:
Finish the second draft of my novel from last year. I was really proud of the work I completed on it during the first half of the year, but nerves kept literally any progress from happening during the second half (and also maybe a lot of wedding planning). I want to see myself as a writer again and I want this project to reach its potential.
Continue painting! It was a hobby I took up specifically because of quarantine and I began with a paint-by-numbers set because I had no idea where else to start. Now I have multiple paint sets, a ton of canvases and watercolor paper, and several books with project ideas. I’m really proud of myself for growing a skillset from just about nothing last year, and I want to keep it up this year.
Get married! We have a venue booked and a date set for 10/10/2021. Plan A is to get married at a small ceremony with our parents and siblings in attendance at Forter Castle in Scotland. Obviously, international travel for fun isn’t currently a thing and there’s no telling when exactly it’ll happen again. Hopefully before 10/10. We recognize it may not. Which is why we have Plan B: get married in a small ceremony with our parents and siblings in attendance at our local courthouse, with a vow renewal in Scotland whenever it’s safe.
I hope you made it through 2020 okay—that you too were able to find some love and joy in all of the fear and sorrow. I doubt many of our plans remained untouched by the end of the year, but I hope that you are finding your bearings on your new path. Last of all, I hope that 2021 will be brighter for us all, and that by its end we’ll be hugging again.
I’d love to hear about your plans and goals for 2021 in the comments! Or if 2020 had any unexpectedly joyful turns for you, too.