December 2020 www.womanthismonth.com 12 GOODBYE 2020! Ouiam el Hassani reflects on what could have been “the worst year ever”. Do you remember New Year’s Eve 2019? The clock ticking the last joyful seconds of a year verging its end, as it has done each and every year before. The familiarity of it all, peppered with the excitement and the anticipation of a new year, and new opportunities. Perhaps you had a party to attend to, perhaps you toasted 2020 with a drink, and giggled at the thought of those -every-year’s- new-year’s resolutions, that might make it to the end of January, but never further. You wished everyone a “Happy New Year”, you made plans for the next 12 months, you thought of countries you would visit, people you would meet, adventures you would have. Not in your wildest and craziest thoughts have you imagined what a ride would 2020 be! Yet here we are again, getting ready to welcome another year…. more uncertainty and confusion set the tone for the coming 12 months. An unusual hint of fear and caution surrounds our plans this time, creeping into our otherwise cheerful “Happy New Year” wishes, our toasts, and any plans we might have the courage to think of. There is absolutely no doubt that 2020, has been one of the strangest years we have experienced. A year garnished with natural disasters, a global pandemic, a barely missed third world war, and the list is long. Many lives were lost, many people are left without a job, or financial security. People not being able to see their loved ones, businesses that closed down, and an intense amount of suffering everywhere. The end of the year does not mark the end of our misery, for all we know this could last a lifetime, however 2020 will always be known for possibly being the worst year ever! Yet we survived it (well... almost!). Isn’t there pride and bravery in living through what would definitely be labeled the worst year of one’s lifetime, and emerge from it alive? Won’t we all have our own version of the story to tell our kids and grandkids? LIFESTYLE | opinion
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