This blog is a list of questions. Think about life, about lessons learned, about yourself and our world, about today and the future. Ponder about what I’m asking. Answer with honesty.
How would you summarize 2020?
What lessons did you learn from 2020?
How did your life change in 2020?
What are your thoughts about the first six weeks of 2021?
What are your hopes and prayers for the remainder of 2021?
How has Covid effected you personally?
What lessons have you learned from that?
How can people of different spiritual beliefs, political opinions, and personal interests treat each other better?
How can you become better in displaying kindness?
What do you believe are longterm effects of the bitterness many people carry?
How can the anger and bitterness turn into peace and joy?
How can you help that become a reality?
I would summarize 2020 as possibly one of worst years of my life. What I learned in 2020 is just to live in the moment and enjoy what you got because it could all be taken in a second. My life didn’t really change in 2020 it just kinda stayed the same. The first six weeks of 2021 haven’t been very nice to me, but I’m hoping that 2021 will be a better year. Covid took a big hit on my mental health and set me back from a dark well I trying to get out of and I learned that life will hit you with red dodgeballs straight in the head, but its up to you if you let the ball take you out or keep going. I feel like people just have to start respecting each others beliefs and stop believing that only one belief/religion is correct. I can be better by not being negative and being nicer to people. I definitely believe that being bitter will just keep you with a negative aura and keep you in a negative perpetual state. I think that we can choose to stop being bitter and just think about how you would want other people to be bitter and feel the way you feel so just be nice and joyful. I can bring that into reality by not letting my bitterness and issues get to me and letting that negative energy out to others.
2020 was a year or growth, hard times, and coming together as a family under one roof. I learned so much through 2020 but more than anything I learned that we need to slow down stop and take time as a family to be with the lord. 2020 changed my life in so many ways but my favorite way is that I was able to rebuild and reconnect with my parents on a more personal level and God allowed me to have a different kind of respect for them. The first 6 weeks of 2021 have been very interesting but good. My hopes are that we can come together as a country and build unity and love for Him grows stronger! Everyone in my family has had COVID and it has been passed around my extended family since mid December and we are still fighting this fight. I learned that life is short and it can be taken away at any moment but that doesn’t mean we have to live in fear actually the opposite it means why are we sitting here when we could be sharing Jesus and traveling and all the other things we desire! I truly believe that no matter what someone else believes we are called to love them. We are called to be in community with them. We need to stop fighting and start loving, we can choose to believe whatever we want but we are called to love regardless. We can be my kind by praying for that peace and that love. People will yes carry that bitterness with them, it was a hard year and it’s hard so pray for those people, pray for ourselves. We can turn that bitterness into peace and joy by praying, showing that love, and being unified under Christ. We can do that by praying for each other, spending time with each other, and loving each other even when we disagree.
2020 was a year where I had to learn how to just sit and be at peace. I had to be okay with not doing anything or having a “normal life”. So far 2021 has been back to normal ish. I’ve been competing in wrestling and going to tournaments. I am excited to see what else it has in store. I have lost family members from covid so it really taught me to take life seriously and have fun as well. I’m greatful for everything I have and for the future.
2020 was a year in wihch God broke me open. I learned my need for family and community. I lost stable housing and work. The first six weeks of 2021 have been far too stressful. I simply pray that I find myself on the other side somehow. The diversity in opinions surrounding the pandemic has created severe tension in my family and at church which has been the worst of it for me. I guess I have learned to look past people’s insistence upon one ideology or another and get along with them. People of differing ideologies can treat each other better by keeping the main thing the main thing and respcting the value of diversity. I can become better at displaying kindness by drawing closer to Christ through his word, allowing myself to modeled after Him. Bitterness leaves unresolved tension that festers and eats away at one’s inner peace. Anger and bitterness can be turned into peace and joy when one releases theirself of the need to be justified or understood, because these things are found in Christ. I can bring this into reality for myself by turning these cares over to Christ.
I would summarize 2020 as a stressful and wild year of trying to relearn myself. I learned that nothing is permanent. Good and bad, a lot of things don’t last but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. a lot of changes happened to me in 2020. Multiple friends got married and engaged. Relationships with people ended but I also gained some new relationships. The first six weeks of 2021 has been rough for me but I have faith that It will eventually start looking up. I hope that I will be able to do the things that I have been working towards for the past four years. I also hope that I will be able to figure out things that I like again. Maybe relearn a skill or two. I also hope that I’ll be able to stay on the path that God wants and has for me. Multiple friends of mine have contracted Covid but it wasn’t too bad for them. I haven’t had Covid yet but I the way that school has been affected probably has had the most impact for me. I have learn to an extent on how to navigate classwork and campus life so far but it has still been physically, mentally and emotionally draining. I also have had to learn to keep better contact with the people around me that I am close with.
I feel as though people of different spiritual beliefs, political opinions, and personal interests could treat each other better by listening more instead of immediately arguing or defying the person opposite to them. I feel like I could show kindness better by actually talking to people more instead of secluding myself somewhere like my house.
I think that people who carry bitterness are at risk of projecting that hurt onto people who have not wronged them and then making a relationship suffer. The release of that bitterness though through forgiveness or truth can open a person up to people and experiences that they may never have had without that type of healing. I think that by being kind and doing my best to help other, I will be able to show what love and forgiveness can do for someone.
How would you summarize 2020?
I would say this is the year that broke me down like no other… Yes, I have been through a lot but this year has been one of the most trying years of my life. It broke me down in so many ways like me having to pretend to be friends with the guy who took advantage of me, to guys trying to just use me for my body, to my entire side of my moms side of the family either disowning me, hating me, or even turning their backs on me, many failed relationships, to me loosing friend, to me almost killing myself twice, and to my great grandmother passing. It was a tough year for me, but it has helped me grow into a better person and it has made me see the true colors of people. It also has helped me find my Why, and it also has helped me find my true family.
What lessons did you learn from 2020?
I have learned that it is okay to ask for help when i am struggling. I found that it is okay to work on yourself and to start loving yourself. I also truly learned that family is not blood it is the family that you make yourself. I also found out that it is okay to be alone and that you do not need validation from anyone. That it is okay to not care what others think just as long as i am truly happy.
How did your life change in 2020?
It has changed me in many ways. It has made me into a stronger person mentally and physically. It made me realize that blood family can leave you in the dust in a heart beat and that it is okay to not have them in your life. It also changed my relationship with my dad and made me and him closer because he is one of my whys. It made me not care what people think of me. It also changed me by putting me at the lowest of my lows, but brought someone to help me in those dark times. Which that person is one of my Whys and I am her why, and she is the first friend that i have clicked with so quickly. It also made me realize I am not what I have done, i am what i have overcome. It also made me realize that I am not what people have done to me. It lastly made me realize this quote ” she’s proof that you can walk through hell and still be an angle” – R.H. Sin.
What are your thoughts about the first six weeks of 2021?
They have been a world wind of emotions just like 2020, but i am not mentally stronger and can actually go through the things i have gone through.
What are your hopes and prayers for the remainder of 2021?
That it will treat me well, and even if it does not that i will keep on fighting no matter how hard it gets.
How has Covid effected you personally?
It cancelled my first season of college lacrosse, it has put me on edge because my dad and grandparents are at high risk for it. It also has made working at a gokart place hard to do because we have to wear masks outside and sanitize everything.
What lessons have you learned from that?
To not take things for granite. To be and enjoy being in the moment.
How can people of different spiritual beliefs, political opinions, and personal interests treat each other better?
I feel like that they can treat each other better by not making fun of each other. And also to let them live their lives with out judging them or them forcing it down the other’s throats by saying their way is the right way.
How can you become better in displaying kindness?
Not talk bad about people behind their backs even if they did me or a friend dirty.
What do you believe are longterm effects of the bitterness many people carry?
It can make them have no friends and it can make their outlook on life horrible.
How can the anger and bitterness turn into peace and joy?
Honestly just having good people around you who always see the positives in life.
How can you help that become a reality?
By being one of those people who have been through a lot but keep a positive outlook on life.
I want to say 2020 and honestly the beginning of 2021 has been a wild ride. 2020 actually started off as a good year until Sep. 25 happened. This was a dark day of my life as I lost my other half. I learned that my family would always be there for me. I was in the darkest time of my life and my dad is the one that picked me up. He helped me to keep going and to pick my self up and show me to live life. Jan. 28, 2021 was the just as bad as Sep. 25, it was the day my dad passed away. I was numb and angry with life in general. The situations and events that had taken place was something I never expected to happen. Im still angry, but not at God just life. Life is something you haft to find the good in the small things to keep happy or just to keep going. It is the little victories that count, they are what means the most. God allows us to find these small victories to keep going. We may see the bad right at this moment, but we haft to try and find the bigger picture in the mess of chaos. Everything happens for a reason, we just haft to take it one day at a time.