2020 finally is over

Customarily, turn of the year is a time for summaries, a time to have a look at the quirkiest year in the lifetime of probably all readers.

The hottest topic in 2020, which dominated news headlines and turned lives of all of us upside down was the COVID-19 pandemic. As it was approaching the gates of Poland (officially, since I believe the first cases were active before 4 March 2020), I named it a classic example of a black swan. At first, we feared the unknown. That resulted in strict social discipline, which, with time and growing fatigue with restrictions, soon waned. We have learnt to live with the awareness of the virus and have developed the ability to shrug it off. The loosened approach to the allegedly retreating virus was, predictably, one of major causes why the second wave was in Poland quite deadly, but has taught us little anyway. To save those bleak days for posterity, I have kept records of the pandemic in a form of a diary (currently published in bi-weekly intervals) and will continue until the vaccines hopefully help take the strain off the health service and bring us back to normalcy.

In the personal life, this was the year I got familiar with Tinder. After 10 failed attempts I found a girlfriend, yet the relationship ended on New Year’s Day. A water to the mill to those who claim on Tinder you can mostly find people who have problems with personality. This is a topic for a separate insightful post, due in two weeks. I believe the break-up and all events in the run-up to it deserve to be put into perspective. Too early to write about it when emotions are running high.

Despite the pandemic, I had decided to get involved in charity. My zeal was quickly dampened and participation as a volunteer ended up with frustration and a grudge. Nevertheless, I still do not rule out I sign up for it this year, but only if the pandemic eases.

Home office, which by 11 March 2020 was an occasional privilege, has become the order (or rather ordeal) of the day (not a single day spent in the office since then). I have no problems with efficiency, focusing on work, ergonomics (I have invested in a top-of-the range chair) nor with separating private and work time. But I do miss direct contact with people and I am sick of staying all the time at home (there was a time when I slept at my girlfriend’s place and came home to work only which gave some relief) which no longer is an asylum and a place of rest. My employer has already told me after the pandemic is gone, I will work 2 days in office, 3 days at home. This looks like the first and foremost reason to look for a new job, which would give flexibility, instead of forcing me to stay at home to bring savings to my employer.

In 2020 I wrote little about politics, especially I have not mentioned my participation in the anti-government march in Warsaw on 30 October 2020, which was attended by approximately 100,000 participants, but just like open-air protests with face masks, has not contributed to increase in COVID-19 spread rate.

My outlook for 2021? The first milestone, whose date remains unknown would be the day four weeks after my parents are vaccinated. The fear of their mental and physical health will be then gone and I will not have to choose between meeting people and visiting them which was the case over the entire 4Q2020 (I had to fork out some cash for a PCR test before Christmas). As the pandemic eases and after I get over the post break-up trauma, I will need to resume the lookout a life companion, which in practice means the Tinder experience will start over.

And I hope by the end of 2021 I also get vaccinated. I will do that:
- out of care and responsibility of those whose life or health is at particular peril,
- to help those who cannot run their businesses, lost their job, income or wealth because of the pandemic,
- to accelerate the recovery of people whose mental or physical health has worsened on account of the virus.