How I Spent My Summer

A strange title for a blog written in 2020, isn’t it?

Here’s the elephant in the room: 2020 has not been ideal (for the sake of peace, The Virus shall remain unnamed). We now live in what feels like a constant state of uncertainty, where getting to plan even a few weeks ahead feels like a privilege. Actually, we live in a world where any sort of security (income, housing, food, health, life , etc.) is an immense privilege . If 2020’s biggest impact on your life was derailed or delayed plans, like mine was, I would say there’s a little something to be grateful for. So reflecting on my summer and realizing that it was probably one of the best I’ve ever spent is not just surprising, but a privilege that I do not take for granted.

In the midst of a broken relationship, new family tensions and my official commitment to
a legal career, I felt lost on a personal level. Something about the end-of-the-world vibes of
2020, however, made my other fears, anxieties and concerns pale in comparison. On the
occasions when I got to be in the physical presence of people, I became attuned to how warm
and alive their energies felt, and how I hadn’t realized it before it became a rare commodity. I
became more comfortable with showing love and how I really felt because how fleeting everything is in life started to feel awfully tangible to me. To be honest, I came out on the other side of summer with a certain peace and perspective that I can’t say I had before.

As an avid overthinker and overplanner, it was shocking to learn that (despite the masks)
it was a little easier to breathe while living in the moment like that. That might sound like a lot of cliche jargon and the majority of us might be struggling too much with the very real life or death circumstances that we face every day to feel anything like appreciation. But I would just say that reflecting on how we spent our summer, as opposed to how we were supposed to or how we could have, might not hurt. A lot of things were upsetting this summer, so why not spend a little time on what wasn’t?