This year has been rough on all of us in more ways than one, but I don’t want to reflect back on all of the negative things that happened. Instead, I’d like all of us to search for the positives of 2020 that made us smile throughout the year.

For example, anyone who has finished something they’ve started in the past can agree that it provides a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment, and this year provided lots of time to complete projects.

I completed my first cross-stitch. This is a huge accomplishment in my book because as a younger kid, I’d never completed a single craft—I would get bored of it quickly then leave it.

All the extra time we have been given at home has also allowed lots of us to spark a new interest in something or rekindle an old one.

I found my passion for writing poems. Despite my love for writing, I would never bother writing anything just for fun because it always seemed like extra work.

This summer, I downloaded an app called Writco where other writers like me can share our work and provide constructive feedback to one another. I had received a lot of positive feedback on poems that I had written during the school year, so it inspired me to continue writing poems for fun and to improve on my writing skills over the break.   

Routines can get quite tiresome after a while, so during this year, I bet many of us have altered our schedule in some way to spice up our day and keep ourselves busy.

I started practicing yoga for the first time. I had already been doing full-body workouts and meditation when I thought of switching to yoga for a change of pace.  

Of course, when I first started out I wasn’t very good at it, but as the months went by, I slowly got better at it. I learned a great deal about inner peace and patience, and I’m looking forward to what else I can learn from yoga.

Yes, 2020 was hard, and yes we’ve had our share of struggles throughout the year, but if we all look close enough, we will all be able to find some positive takeaways from this year and hope for better times in 2021.