Covid-19 pandemic, bushfires, Brexit, natural disasters, political and government disasters. The year 2020 is the worst year ever. Lockdowns, quarantines, worries over job stability, worries about food depletion, being away from loved ones, our loved ones being sick or worse, losing them, it exhausted us until the very end. It’s constantly whacking us back to back to back.

And so, we wish for the year 2020 to end. It’s just a cursed year. We hope that 2021 will be better. It’s already the end of the year and I know that many of us are itching to get over it but why not reflect back into our 2020 and see the good things that we have overlooked, dumped underneath the worry. Also, since it’s such a depressing year, let’s look at our resources we can tap into to uplift us and make us smile.

I’ve made a simple worksheet for that. You can save the pictures or download the PDF file as you please and print.

Things That Made My 2020 Crap

List down situations, events, people, anything that made you feel bad. If not a list, you may just freewrite as well and just simply vent them all out.

Evil Energies

In one word answers (or something, because I know you might find excuses to put a phrase), write down negative emotions you’ve felt throughout the year.

Make Your Shit Shine

Going back to ‘your craps’ write a reflection of how those can bear a positive fruit like what you’ve learned, what those craps led into, what changed in you because of that.

Connection Counter

Remember that this is not counting popularity or looking for a bigger social circle. These are just reminders that you will never be zero in terms of having some people to run to whenever you feel down. Put in the numbers for:

• Minutes of your longest conversation for this week, know that you will always have someone to talk to
• Number of people you can think of within one minute who will mostly be willing to drop their plans for your crazy ideas
• Groups or support bubbles you are actively in contact with e.g. friends from uni, workmates, online community
• Activities you usually think of, and/or do when you’re bored
• Number of likes in your recent social media post, skip if you don’t have social media. Remember that no matter how little or many these are, friends or strangers, you can always reach out to these people who can relate to you or appreciate what you do
• Think that these are just the number of things you received in a week, if you look back to the whole year, there are probably more
• Number of help you gave in the past three days. Somehow, we received some blessings, so why not pay it forward in your simple ways?
• Remember that if no one is available to be there for you when you need them (they probably have something going on in their lives as well), there will always be places you can go to to bring you calm, a place nonjudgmental if you want to cry or shout
• List down whoever you can think of in one minute, if you’re complaining how hard 2020 is, well, so are they

Didn’t Know I Could Do That

Many of us surely gained a skill, a talent, or a passion for something we never knew we liked. No matter how few you list down, a gain is a win.

Top 3 Contacts of 2020

If you have Whatsapp, do this:

Settings > Data and storage usage > Storage usage

List the top 3 contacts (person or group) with most storage used.

Or you can also just think about who have you been sharing memes, quotes, rants with this year. Always think about them when you feel like your chest is about to explode, these are those who will share a part of their storage for your baggages.

Challenge: Mix and Match

Now, with all these data collected, next time in lockdown and more, you know that there are things that you can do with these people in your life. Create a challenge for yourself. For example, share my new plant (your recent passion) with the person (first one as it appears) who liked your recent post.

This part is optional. You may put a collage of snapshots from your 2020. If you want to put happy memories, then post it somewhere in your room as a reminder that even the worst year in history gave you a smile. If you want to put bad memories, you can too. But, burn it, tear it, or vandalize it. Let those sorrows disappear, and prepare for a new year with welcoming arms, no matter what it will bring.

Note: If you’re okay with it, please take a photo of your finished worksheet, and tag me on Instagram (@me.lykee) or Facebook (Lilac Penafiel).