An Ode to 2020
What up my Big Man,
And I do mean big. I’m sure you’ve crossed 3 feet at this point. Anyway, here I am again chronicling your life. What a time to be alive my boy, what a time to be alive. Not going to lie, there is some doom and gloom in the words ahead. Big BUT, the future is bright. Things will end on a good note, including this memoir. My attempt in this letter will be to make some sense of all that is currently going on, but I feel like you might need a refresher. Let’s start from the tizzop.
A pandemic is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, such as multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of people. See the map as a reference:
In March of 2020, the novel coronavirus (or COVID-19) shut-the world-down!! Cars parked. All flights were grounded. All boats anchored. Schools and workplaces closed. Every event cancelled. Economy, collapsed. The stock market on life support. Masks became the #1 accessory on the planet. High fives and hugs were outlawed. Birds stopped chirping. Dogs stopped barking. People got fat. Families were locked in the house together with no exit insight. Sadly, what was a gift for us was a curse for many others. Mental health issues ran rampant. And the only visitors to the house were Amazon and DoorDash.
Then, tragically, several prominent murders occurred. #RIP Jabari, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and unfortunately many others. Black people murdered in multiple instances by those responsible for protection and service of the community. This drove many people back outside, back to the streets. There were worldwide protests. For a brief moment, there was a sense of unity. A divided nation brought together through shared tears. Now, count with me. 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10. That’s about how long that kumbaya lasted. After all, we had an election ahead of us. It’s a fact. No one breaks up a peace circle like Democrats V Republics. After what seems to be millions of email and text blasts, the election ended in November. Then it started up again in December and finally wrapped in January. Run-offs, am I right smh.
Your mother and I are big fans of celebrating. We’ll celebrate anything honestly, but New Year’s Eve is one of our favorites. So we take this trip up to Chattanooga with the Stones. In the midst of the nation fighting over donkeys and elephants, we go to Tennessee and have a great time with your aunt, uncle, and cousins. We went to the aquarium and had some good food with great company. You even stayed awake to midnight for the countdown. We returned to Atlanta, even stopping at the Simon Farm to kick it for a bit with our Adairsville family. It seemed for a few days that maybe 2020 was behind us. But it wasn’t, not by a long shot. We start with a riot in DC with people legit storming the Capitol. Big Trump gets impeached and acquitted for a 2nd time. First time in the history of the United States that that has happened. Cities around the nation and countries around the world return to lockdown due to a resurgent Rona that now comes in more flavors than Baskin Robbins has. Then, the murders start again. Here in our hometown a hate-filled coward goes on a killing spree, targeting asian women. Then another madman shoots up a grocery store in Colorado days later.
Honestly, that was a lot more unpacking of doom and gloom than I anticipated at the onset of this letter. Accounting for all that negativity, fully realizing there is just as much omitted as presented, is a bit of a downer. Nevertheless, always the more. I said I would pull this plane out of the nosedive and pull up I shall, good sir. It is so easy to let the bad linger, to wallow in pity of self and others. But easy isn’t always good. Many times, easy is settling for less. Added effort results in added impact. One would figure with so much bad happening, how could there be any good to recall? That’s where the aforementioned effort comes into play.
Let’s start with the stock market. As I said, it bought the farm in mid March of 2020. My portfolio value was cut in half. My 401K cried for weeks. I was incredibly frustrated. However, I took the opportunity the crash presented to invest more. #BuyTheDip. Companies I had previously been interested in but thought were too rich for my taste now sat at a very reasonable price points. I bought up stock from March to May; then I let it sit. By January of 2021, I was seeing returns of 500%. On Valentine’s Day, I hit an all-time high of 650% ROI. After I stopped buying stocks in May 2020, I started buying cryptocurrency. Being an early adopter, I’d held Bitcoin since 2018. But I expanded my research and my portfolio into other coins and tokens. Uncle Cell was a big influence in that, so shout out to him. Those moves have paid off even more than the stock market. I can say without a doubt that I made more money investing in 2020 than I had in all other years of managing my own portfolio combined. Best believe I’m paying tithes on it too. Trusting the Lord with my finances is something I’ve done for a long time now. It’s what has gotten me to where I am financially today. I won’t be stopping that and will greatly encourage you to follow suit.
March 2020, I started working from home full-time. I could have never imagined what a blessing that would be. I got to hang with you and Charlotte all day, everyday. Surprisingly enough, you (and more so Charlotte) tired of me before I got tired of y’all. We ate lunch together. We would take afternoon walks. You knocked out your potty training and Charlotte learned to walk before my very eyes. I would have missed these things going into the office everyday. You would sit in the home office with me describing the difficulties Woody faced being the favorite toy while I analyzed data in Excel. Charlotte would fall asleep in my lap listening to USAC webinars. You both had many a cameo on my conference calls. That wasn’t always great, but the time spent was absolutely invaluable. What an opportunity I was given by the pandemic, once in a lifetime for sure.
Outside of work hours, we took a few amazing trips. I already talked about good ole Chat-Town, but we also went to the beach and were able to enjoy ourselves with little to no one around. Real quick, all “we’s” mentioned in relation to the beach only refer to Mommy, Charlotte, and I. You still aren’t the biggest fan. So many hours spent in our personal sandy, paradise listening to the waves, the wind, and NLE Choppa. At one point, one of the other 7 people on the beach let me borrow his boogie board. When I tell you I felt like a literal dolphin riding atop this monster wave, I do so with fire in my eyes and no smile on my face. I walked out of the water a whole porpoise and had all the apple slices, Teddy Grahams, and ham sandwiches a merman could ask for. The small amount of time we weren’t at the beach, we had the pool, restaurants, and shopping centers basically to ourselves. It was like surviving the zombie apocalypse, but someone was still around to sell us ice cream.
Not long after that, we took our first ever “friemily” trip. The Alexanders, Simmons, and Tates together for a whirlwind adventure with our miniatures in tow. Crazy thing is we barely left the vacay house. We had a pool, food and bev for days, and all the card games necessary to entertain ourselves. One of the J’s is a pretty vengeful Phase 10 player, but I won’t name names. We got to visit with Pop and Gram for a few well spent hours, playing with toys and watching basketball. That turned into a princess house for Charlotte and your first HotWheel set. Those items are setup in the home we bought. We celebrated Christmas and welcomed family and friends to our 2nd home. We celebrated a momentous 1st and 80th birthday as well as welcomed babies Najee and Emily to the family. I got to watch Coco be honored by the SCLC. We went to your first pumpkin patch. We watched a bunch of movies outside. We attended a wedding of a match made in Heaven. I went canoeing for the first time and ran and biked over 100 miles in a few months. I golfed the most I ever have. Tons of good memories made in what was a year for the ages.
The last year has been a wild one, and the trend has continued into 2021. There is maybe a tweak or two I would have made to 2020, but I’m thankful for the year that was. Remember that even on the darkest of days, there is good that can be found. It won’t always be obvious, but take action and grab joy as often as you can. Find the silver lining in dark clouds. Don’t be afraid to point it out to others either. A lot of people need help finding good during trying times. There is this quote from this super dope King that I love. “Ask and it will be given. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened.” Realize though, that each result requires action. But you can confidently lean all the way into that. Regardless of whether it’s 2020, 2021, or 2038, there is goodness waiting for you. Go get it! And take her sister with you.
Love you both,
Velociraptor
