I started writing this post by sarcastically rehashing 2020 then deleted it deciding this was not the place for that. You know what just happened, you lived it and don’t need to relive it again right now. I’m sure Time Magazine, Fox News, NPR, and all the other media outlets will be doing that for the next months, if not years, anyway. I think it is safe to simply say 2020 is a year that will not soon be forgotten. Will we learn from this year that just passed? I hope so. Like the morning after mixing way too many liquors 2020 gave us both headaches and nausea. It was like that hangover that tricks you because you must still have enough alcohol in your system from the night before. You feel fine at first then, WHAM! The hangover hits you, and not the simple kind that goes away after an hour, but the really bad kind that means that any movements or the subtlest of lights bring a storm of pain you fear will never end.

No, 2020 was not a normal year that brought a little hangover from the year before. 2020 was the hangover that lasted all year. We tried every remedy in the book but could not shake this one. We tried water, Gatorade, and pickle juice. We broke out the extra strength Advil and ate all the greasy food we could find. When nothing else would work we tried to sweat the poison out to no avail. As we got deeper and deeper into the year it became clear that the only remedy would be time.

It is now the dawn of a new year. The hangover that was 2020 has come to an end. With hope we are on the cusp of greatness. We will have a year filled with excellence. With the headache and nausea gone we can get back to productivity. We can innovate and create. We can come together and be kind. We can share out toilet paper with the confidence that we will not soon run out. Yes, 2021 can be our rebound year. We have drunk from multiple bottles and now can use that knowledge to make better decisions going forward. No longer will we go in unprepared. We have just experienced a shock to the system that can jolt us into making good, proactive, decisions going forward.

I am optimistic about 2021. There is a pent-up energy like I have never seen before. People are ready to burst and with all that enthusiasm incredible things can be accomplished. Businesses will come back more creative than ever, kids will enthusiastically attend school, and people will be proactive about their health. 2020 can be our wakeup call. We can do better every day, better preparing us for when the unexpected happens or we make a bad decision. We have survived the hangover that was 2020 and now can embrace 2021 with the vigor of someone who did not spend all night mixing alcohols, but one that was forced to rest for twenty-four hours and can now attack the day.

Happy New Year! Here’s to a great 2021!