Friday Things // 12.4.2020

The one with the pep talk.

Happy Friday, friends!

How are we doing today? I started my day with a Coldplay-themed spin class (c/o Peloton, the real hero of my #pandemiclife), which is really the same as telling you I started my day off with a good cry, and now here we are — the first Friday of December, the last month of this (God-awful) year.

That, to me, feels like an accomplishment we should be applauding ourselves for.

You may or may not know this, but in my 9-5, I’m an editor and manage a company magazine. I mention that only because yesterday, during an editorial meeting closing out our last issue for 2020, I ended up giving an unplanned pep talk to the writers and associate editors I work with. When I hung up the phone, I thought to myself that we all need a damn pep talk at this point. So, today, that’s what I’m here for. (I mean, if we’re being honest, I love cheering people on regardless of the s**t-storm of a year it’s been, and if cheering at races could be my professional career, I’d be down, but I digress… 😉)

Regardless of what you’ve personally been dealt this year, it’s been an extremely challenging nine months. This pandemic has been an experience that most of us have never had to deal with before, and an extended trauma none of expected to endure when we watched the calendar switch to 2020 nearly a year ago. You know that already, but I think it begs repeating. Maybe you lost people you loved this year. Maybe you felt the most isolated or lonely you’ve ever felt in your life, or maybe this year brought up old feelings, or old darkness that you thought you’d successfully put to bed. Maybe you thought 2020 was going to be * your year * — the year where everything fell into place and luck was on your side. And maybe, maybe the year has been a giant wave of mixed emotions — of joy and gratitude punctuated by grief and uncertainty. Whatever you’ve felt, whatever ocean you’ve been swimming in, know that it’s OK if you feel like it’s been a challenge to keep your head above water. That if you have been struggling — whether that’s a familiar feeling or not — you are not alone, even if it may seem that way. 2020 has been HARD.

It’s been nine months of a drawn out grieving process. Grieving for a lifestyle, for friendships, for family, for a world we used to know. Grieving for everything we thought was secure, rock-solid, unmovable. For the foundation that has slipped away, the certainty that maybe we’re still not sure we’ll ever get back, and unanswered questions of when we might feel 100% like ourselves again — when our lives will feel like our own again.

But, here you are! Look at you — you made it. 😍

Say it aloud, friends — in the face of it all, you made it. YOU persevered. The first Friday of the last month of this life-altering year, and you are still standing. Maybe you feel battered, maybe you’re emotionally bruised or exhausted, but damn… you’re here. We are here.

That deserves a YAY, don’t you think? How many times in the last nine months did you question how you’d make it through, or try to figure out how much you could withstand? Did you try to pinpoint what would be the thing to finally break you down? And hey, maybe your reactions or your resilience didn’t come the way you had anticipated. That’s okay. Despite it all, you made it through. The finish line is so, so close.

I’m not saying that when the clock strikes midnight on January 1, 2021, we’re all going to feel like a million bucks, and the world will suddenly, magically, make sense and be back to “normal.” I’m sorry to say that I don’t know what January or even 2021 will bring us, but my point is that despite the hurdles of this last year, you cleared them all. You cleared them all, and you made it through possibly the hardest year of your life. And not only that, but you have continued to get up each day. Continued to breathe in and out, and put one foot in front of the other, even when it has felt impossibly difficult. That has taken an incredible amount of strength, and so very much bravery.

Don’t compare yourself or your situation to anyone else’s. Just because maybe you didn’t know someone who was sick or died this year, or didn’t lose your job, or maybe even had moments/months of bright light thanks to new babies or promotions or other goodness — that does not minimize your struggles this year. It does not diminish your courage, or how hard it has been for each of us, in our own ways, to continue moving forward. To put the pain and the anguish in another room, and lift our chins up, roll our shoulders back.

Two things can be true at the same time; you can feel relief and pride for all that you’ve accomplished, optimism and hope for what’s coming next, and yet still feel the loss or sadness that may always accompany any mention of 2020 for so many of us. Maybe 2021 won’t be a complete reset or automatic refresh, and it certainly can’t undo any of the tears you’ve shed in 2020 or bring back the things you lost, but perhaps that’s okay. Because you did it! You got here, and that means you can handle the unthinkable. You can handle hard things. Let the sun shine on your face — you’ve already done it. 🎉

Enjoy your weekend, lovelies. If you want to chat more about this, or even need another pep talk, shoot me an email, leave a comment on this post, or DM me on Instagram.

I’m rooting for you. 💛

Joelle