2021 started on hopeful terms but as things were, it felt more of a struggle than 2020. Somehow, this pandemic has made this year like January, February, March, November, December or even less. Not much happening at times but still glad to tick off personal milestones and finding strength in solitude.
Year of The Franc XVI
16 years of writing this year-ender post and it never gets easy. If this were a game, it’s always a level up in terms of difficulty and milestones. It has its highs and its lows. Of course coming from pandemic year 2020, you’d think that there’s no way to go but UP. The world has other plans. There were extremely challenging moments in between.
First Quarter High
The year 2021 started feeling normal with a bit of an ease up in terms of quarantine levels. The first quarter is a high with me finally moving in to a new city and a new property. It does take a pandemic to skew my priorities in getting real properties and personally, I should have done this decades before. I’m just glad that I finally had the courage to make a big big step. That also would entail taking even more responsibilities just to have financial leeway. I also had to give up some passion projects like organizing trail races not just because of the pandemic but because I’d only do this projects once I can delivery at the quality I want. There’s just no so-so effort for me.
I always thought that I would have a grand birthday when I turned 40 but as things are, I don’t even remember how I celebrated that year. Luckily on my 43rd year, I had a chance to celebrate in style at Blackwood where we had the place all for ourself. I can say that it’s the 40th birthday I wanted on my 43rd birthday. Another gift was being able to do it before the world went back into lockdown.
Then Lockdown Happens
When lockdown resumed, it seemed that life was on a downward path. I was sick for a time and then limited my activities in between vaccinations. Just when I was ready to go out from all the safety precautions, the Delta Variant came and brought in another series of lockdowns. I felt real low during this time as my introverted side took over being in solitude for such a long-time. The thing was I lost my passion for fitness and outdoors for a time and everything was on auto pilot mode.
I guess this was also the time that I was adjusting to a new home and a slower paced style of life. Fun now was furnishing my home and working out on Zwift as much as I can. Somehow, this time also made me stronger as I tried to slowly emerged from my Anti-Social Shell.
Out of My Anti-Social Shell
When the world eased up a bit, I still wasn’t out of my personal bubble but slowly I started hitting the trails again, running outdoors and meeting friends. Then I’m back to my outdoor-loving and sociable self towards the end of the year. While the pandemic is not over, it felt a little bit normal. It’s a bit scary as every place was starting to get crowded. We need to celebrate small victories during the pandemic. Slowly, I tried to catch up with things I haven’t done in the past two years. For one, I was able to visit our plant in Bataan this month and more importantly, I was able to visit my home town, Baguio City for Christmas.
It’s as if the world opened up a bit for us to do things we haven’t done in the past two years. The last two weeks felt busy because for almost two years, we’ve been used to the slow paced and homey lifestyle. I’m ending 2021 meeting family and friends. Trying to fit all the people I’ve miss was such a challenge. Well not all but at least I tried.
Well, things are different now. I have a lot of responsibilities now. As I said, it’s a level up and let’s see what 2022 brings.