If you’re reading this, congratulations!  You’re also a survivor of 2020.  We all have stories we’d rather not remember from 2020 so I tried to find some good things that I can bring into the new year.

Finding good things from 2020 was a real challenge.  It’s the most difficult year I can remember and the things that I’d rather not remember far dwarfs those that I would by a long shot.  Still, it can’t be all that bad, right?

I think the best thing that happened for me this year was my room improvement.  As I was forced to work from home because of the pandemic, I had to make my room conducive to working.  My room transformed from primarily a place to sleep to a mini office, sans the centralized air-conditioning.  That meant getting a new table and chair which my employer sponsored, and from there I stepped it up (with my own money) with an addition of an ultrawide monitor to replicate our dual-monitor office setup and an ergonomic vertical wireless mouse (with RGB just for fun).  And while I was at it, I also doubled the functionality of my space as an entertainment area after work by getting a new 2.1 speaker setup, a gaming headset with virtual 7.1 channel, an RGB mechanical keyboard, and an oversized RGB mousepad.

It’s quite an investment on my end but I learned a lot from this project: it forced me to be updated with the latest hardware, as I figured out which items to purchase; practiced cable management several times, as I gradually upgrade my hardware; and apply some interior design learnings I picked up from my condo renovation.

I think my biggest takeaway from 2020 is that we’re stronger than we give ourselves credit for.  Change is the only thing constant and as long as we’re open to adapt, we can survive and even thrive.  Hopefully, 2021 would be much better than the year it followed.

Have a happy and more prosperous New Year!