2020 was a hell of a year and what surprised me the most is how truly grateful I am for this year. The impact of isolation on my life was waves of manic creation followed by periods I felt absolutely stuck and couldn’t accomplish anything. I learned so much this year through the pandemic and made many new friendships that wouldn’t have happened if it was a normal year. I documented pandemic life experiences for posterity and I am super grateful for it all.
Here is a quick run through is what made this year so memorable:
Getting My Health Back
Getting my health back was the greatest thing that happened to me in 2020. I have suffered from cluster headaches for four years now and 2020 was the first year where I had medication that actually worked. Living a life that wasn’t one of constant pain was life changing for me. There is a complete difference of being stuck at home and being stuck at home in pain.
In 2021 I hope to get back into a regular exercising routine. I was disappointed in myself for not getting back into it this year but when your health has dramatically changed for years I have realized giving myself the grace to take a couple years to get back to ‘normal’ is ok. Everything takes time.
To learn more about my experience with cluster headaches CLICK HERE.
Publishing My First Book
My friends threw me a small socially distant launch party. It was perfect and the best day ever!
I finally published a book I had been working on for the past three years. I had seen so many people in my life show up online time and time again in the worst way possible so I wrote a book about how marketing tactics trick us into posting BS content. I used my unique position as an internet marketer, an internationally viral creator, and the life experience of being raised in a small conservative rural town and growing into a progressive adult to talk about the most common posts I saw and why they worked. I was in a unique position to offer insight on this topic so I went for it and I couldn’t be more proud of this book.
I even landed the #1 new release spot on Amazon in Communications and Media Studies the first week it launched! I am so proud of this book and you can CLICK HERE to pick up a copy. As we start 2021, being more mindful of information online is more important than ever and this book is a quick read that will help you see posts for the marketing tactics they are.
Built Up My YouTube Channel
I had so much fun this year building up my YouTube channel. Knowing our world is more and more virtual and YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world I thought it would be a great way to connect with people. What I didn’t expect was how fulfilling it would be and how many friendships I would form from this channel. People really enjoyed my Redbird Vintage Box Unboxings and I got to know many of the other ladies who also do them. It felt so good putting out that kind of joy for people.
Featured on Two Fantastic Podcasts
This year I had the honor of being interviewed on two amazingly fabulous podcasts. I have done many interviews in the past years but I think these two were my absolute favorite! It is encouraging to know that as I grow as a professional and artist people want to discuss more than just one meme with me and they really want to dig into other experiences I have. Both these podcasts are so fun and we dug into topics I don’t usually get to talk about! I also totally geeked out seeing Gary Vaynerchuck was a previous guest on an Interview with Melissa Llarena. Being on the same roster as one of my heroes was a true honor!
CLICK HERE to listen to this episode of the Vintage Old Biddy!
CLICK HERE to listen to my episode on an Interview with Melissa Llarena.
This Was a Year of Learning
2020 was a year of learning and especially learning about equity, race, socioeconomic challenges related to race, and about history I was never taught growing up. The more I learned the more humbled (and quite honestly embarrassed at how little I knew) and I am more determined to not just be quiet and be an accomplice to the status quo. I couldn’t believe how much history I didn’t know, but I am willing to put in the work to learn. Even if it means I am taking part in toxic parts of history being made today, I am learning to accept that and move forward and do better.
I am also lucky enough to have a workplace that identifies with growth in these areas as valuable to our work and to society. They invested in equity training for the staff as well as paid for everyone to take the IDI (Intercultural Development Inventory). This is my third time taking this assessment and I am proud to say it shows I have made progress but I am still nowhere near where I want to be. But doing better takes intention and we can’t just hope to do better without making the effort.
I Hit My Yearly Reading Goal
This may sound like a lame accomplishment next to the others but it is hugely important to me to push myself to read more books than the previous year before. It takes time and intention to do this and to prioritize learning in your life and I want to make that priority larger and larger every year I am alive. This year my goal was to read 20 books in 2020 and you can CLICK HERE to see my full list. Here are my top recommendations from this year:
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
This book was hugely important to me! I recommend this book as the first read for any white person who has never read a book on the subject of race. Why? Because the book isn’t about understanding race. It is about understanding to get out of your own way and to remove your ego on the subject. Growing up race was a completely taboo subject. The only thing I was ever told was that; “Racists were bad people and we weren’t racist.” That is it. So when anyone mentioned the word black or racism I got completely uncomfortable. In fact I would feel attacked when it was pointed out to me that something I said or did could be considered racist.
I was so naive on the subject of race I didn’t even know how to talk about it without losing my emotions and becoming a mess. This book will help you with that and that is the first step to learning about race and to move forward and do better.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
This book is beyond amazing. Comparing the hierarchy in the US to a caste system was a concept that that I had only been peripherally aware of. This book helped me understand so many things that I knew were unjust but I didn’t understand why so many people fight to maintain in our country. I also realized my knowledge of lynchings and deep seated racism was vastly naive, and even though it was painful I am glad this book opened my eyes to the truth in those horrors.
I also wasn’t aware how the wording of our racist laws inspired so much of the implementation of laws created by the Third Reich to systematically target a group of people. Learning more about how the foundation of country was created specifically to target a single caste and keep them down has helped me see so much and I am so very grateful for this book.
The Radical King by Martin Luther King Jr., Cornel West (Editor)
If you have never listened to any other speech by Martin Luther King Jr. other than the “I Have A Dream” speech then this book is for you. If you don’t know how Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. are connected, then this book is for you. If you don’t understand how Emmit Till related to police brutality today then this book is for you. If you think Martin Luther King was purely a passives and don’t understand his thoughts around the Salt March (or even what the Salt March is) and how it influenced his activism then this book is for you
This is probably the most impactful book I have read in a decade and it opened my eyes to the white washed version of King I was taught and made me cry because his words could have been spoken today. Nothing has changed and every word is still timely and relevant.
Wrapping It All Up
And at the end of it all I really didn’t achieve all my planned goals this year. Far from it. I didn’t even accomplish half of them. I set up my own Top Nine for the year to come and I failed pretty miserably. But that is ok! I tried, and I worked really hard to achieve them. And at the end of the year I still achieved quite a lot!
CLICK HERE if you want a more in depth look at my failed goals for 2020.
So if you feel 2020 was a year where you felt stuck or didn’t feel like you achieved all that you wished, I suggest putting together a list of accomplishments much like this post. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of everything we have done. I am wishing you a wonderful 2021. I am routing for you!