Bye 2020 Car Fire
The Memes!

Bye 2020

Bye 2020 Car Fire

Every year at the end of December, we take the time to reflect on the previous twelve months.  Aside from atypically bad spells, we have enough “good stuff” to balance out the bad (or at least come close to offsetting some of the bad) most years.  We say “good riddance” to the outgoing year, and start thinking of ways that the new one will be an improvement.  We gather with friends and family to say goodbye to the old as we laugh, sing, dance, and party our way into the new. Unless, of course, it’s the year 2020…

Longing for the Past

This year is obviously different.  Instead of the usual New Year’s festivities, there will be very few celebrations, parties, or large gatherings to take part in Thursday night.  Everything that does take place will be smaller and more subdued.  And more people than ever will choose not to do anything special at all to commemorate the occasion.  Even worse, countless millions will think of loved ones they’ve lost this past year, including those that succumbed to the insidious coronavirus that devastated the globe in 2020.  It’s only natural to feel the weight of the loss that 2020 brought into our homes, our places of work and play, and our collective worlds.

People Need People

There is much to mourn over, to be sure. But there is also much to feel proud of.

For one thing, we have learned how much people need people (click here for a discussion why).  Shortly after the lockdown of March 2020 began, we parents quickly began to realize that we needed to do something to mitigate the impact that the forced isolation was having on our families.  We scrambled to organize Zoom playdates (or “hangouts,” as my middle schoolers tell me, because the term “playdate” isn’t cool to use with tweens anymore, or so I’m told), birthday parades, graduation drive-bys, and more.  When we provided opportunities for our kids to see each other, they began to feel that sense of connectedness that had begun to fade away. 

To add to these efforts, dance schools and other extracurricular organizations invented creative ways to maintain the bonds with their students (see Keeping the Connection for some activities our studio created) while they were physically apart. Teachers, parents, and others who work with children recognized and responded to the kids’ need for human interaction; perhaps our greatest triumph this year was providing opportunities for them to connect to each other when they couldn’t physically be together.

Lessons in Gratitude

Because we were forcibly denied things that we had historically taken for granted, the word “gratitude” took on a whole new meaning in 2020.  Before this year, did you ever think that you would hear your child ASK to go to school?  Mine began to realize how much they actually missed being in class with a live teacher and seeing their friends in person.  So when my girls’ school opened in September, they knew that each day they were allowed in the building was a blessing.  When in-person dance classes resumed in the spring, they were overjoyed to interact with their dance family once again.  As I write this, they are in a rehearsal session for a competition routine that may not see the stage for months; while they know competitions may be postponed or canceled, they’re happy to roll up their sleeves and get to work.  In a word, they are grateful.

Bye 2020

Let’s face it:  2020 was a raging dumpster fire.  We are more than happy to cast it aside, and hope for better times ahead.  Feeling anger, resentment, regret, and other negative emotions has been acceptable in any other year before this, so it’s natural that we experience them as we show 2020 the door.  

But let’s not forget the lessons we’ve learned this year.  Rather, let’s head into 2021 with our newfound wisdom and gratitude, and a conviction to make it the best year yet.

Happy New Year to all of you!  Wishing you a healthy, safe, and prosperous 2021!

Click here for 2020 Vision: The Dance Year in Review.

Dance-coach-turned-dance-mom to identical twin competitive dancers!

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