January 30, 2022

A Farewell to 2021




I have spent the past 30 days, the entirety of the month, trying to reflect upon the last year. At the end of one year and the start of another, I usually have something to say about the year gone by. At the dawn of this new year, I was at a loss for words when I looked back to 2021. 

The year started on the highest of highs, but felt like it ended in the lowest of lows. The amount of hope I felt at the start of the year was overwhelming in the best of ways. It truly felt like the beginning of the end of the nightmare that was the covid pandemic.

As the year came to a close, I didn't feel anything remotely close to hope. Hope? Who is she? Instead I felt and overwhelming sense of frustration, sadness, and hopelessness.. Amidst the onset of yet again another variant and another surge, it became blatantly clear that this pandemic is nowhere near over, and more heartbreakingly it probably never will be. How naive I was a year ago to think anything differently.

In my mind I had expected 2021 to end on a much higher note than it did in actuality. I was thrown off with how the year was ending, and I think that's why I've had a hard time articulating my feelings about 2021. The ending blurred my vision for what the rest of the year was. Now that I've had some time and space to pause and reflect, I can see what 2021 really was. 

It was a year filled with many, many moments of hope, and many moments that, do I dare say, felt normal. At the end, it was easy to forget this. My vision was so blurred that I temporarily couldn't see all the times throughout the last year that I felt an immense sense of hope & happiness. I promise they were there in abundance.

Indoor dining returned. Yankee Stadium reopened to fans who were desperate to sip a beer & listen to Frank Sinatra sing "start spreading the news..." on a hot summers night. Airports filled back up. I traveled near and far, to new and old destinations. In person yoga classes resumed. I was reunited with friends & family I hadn't seen since before the pandemic. We got to belly up to a bar again! The NYC Marathon returned & thousands of people lined the streets to cheer on runners chasing a dream. I got to run it. Celebrations of love returned. I got to watch two of my oldest friends get married. I was able to hug my grandpa again. There was so much hope.

These were the moments we had dreamed about and begged for just a short year prior. We got to live them again! How could I forget that. I love 2021 for bringing them back to me. 

All these things we had missed so much came back to us, and they are still here! We have not regressed. Despite at times feeling like we have taken a hundred steps back, we have not. We are still forging ahead. Hopefully stronger & more grateful than before.

In 2022 I refuse to let the pandemic bog me down any longer. It is what it is. I did & continue to do my part as best as I can, but I have no control. So I am choosing to move forward full speed ahead to all the moments of goodness and happiness that this upcoming year has in store for me. I know they are there & they are coming. I am choosing to cling to hope. I hope you choose to do the same. 


xo. G 

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