2020 was definitely a challenging year for so many people. For me personally the lockdown itself wasn't as difficult because I had James with me. I started of 2020 skiing which was something completely new to me and I remember being terrified because my body just wasn't used to how strenuous skiing was and I felt inadequate compared to the rest who had been skiing for years. After a few lessons I felt like I could cope but again feeling like I'm always a few steps behind everyone else. I started running consistently and I can now easily run for an hour steadily. This is something I was never able to do before and I could never imagine myself as a 'runner'. It took practice and doing couch to 5k was such a strange experience for me because whilst you're doing it you don't feel like any change is happening at all. But after weeks and weeks of struggling and failing you get into a comfortable rhythm and realise that you CAN run. With running its more a mental struggle than a physical one which is not something I've been good at overcoming.
I was in the middle of my masters when the pandemic struck in full swing. Lessons were cancelled and everything moved online. I enjoyed the first semester of my masters but having everything online completely ruined the experience of the 2nd semester. I feel even worse for those in their first year of degree who are now doing it virtually. The masters itself was really quite challenging and on hindsight I wonder if I would have chosen the same Masters had I known there would be a pandemic. The Maths aspect of the course was really difficult and I'm so proud of those results in particular.
Since March 2020 this whole year has been a mixture of total lockdown, tier systems, and different lockdown rules, social distancing. At first I felt unaffected by this and things felt OK but after a while it did start to wear down on me. Especially when the rules in KL were relaxed and most people were on family holidays and attending weddings and things seemed like it was getting back to normal there. We were initially going to go back to KL whilst waiting for the new house to be built but because the cases were still quite bad Malaysia closed its borders, and its still closed now until March 2021.
Living in James mums' house was also an experience because I had never lived with anyone for such a prolonged period of time that wasn't my own house or my parents house. Its difficult adapting to a new situation even though his mum was extremely gracious and treated us really well whilst we were there. She went above and beyond by cooking for us and cleaning and trying to give us as much space as possible.
The main lesson that I want to take with me to 2021 is to have more patience, to be more positive, and to not get so worked up over something small. There have been plenty of times this year where I thought I knew best but no one really does and I want to be more flexible and adapt better to bad situations. More compassionate and kind when dealing with others.
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