Well, That Was Different
Obviously, 2020 was terrible. It was a year full of chaos, pain, and loss.
But also a year of togetherness, community, and innovation.
The year no one will ever forget, yet everyone wants to forget. The year of togetherness yet severe division. The year of stunned silence and anguished screams. Where families, friends, acquaintances, and strangers all shared in a collective pain yet were separated by a vast canyon of differing views that created a seemingly insurmountable divide between them. 2020 brought people together while simultaneously tearing them apart.
2020: The year that shined a spotlight on differences.
I witnessed the horror show that was going on around me, as we all did, and I watched in disbelief as nonsense and insanity took over. It seemed that logic and reason ceased to exist. What was logical to one person was nonsense to another. It didn’t make sense. I couldn’t understand it.
Then I began to realize how different I am. The way I think about things and process information is different. I see, I listen to, and I analyze the same information, but the logic I apply, and sometimes even the conclusions I draw, are different. My brain is just…different. And this realization made me feel…different. And weird and isolated. Like the way I think is wrong. I couldn’t understand other people’s reasoning, and they couldn’t understand mine. It was disorienting.
I experienced pain and loss in 2020, both in relationships and financially. Some personal and professional relationships were fractured, I lost work, and my income was diminished. However, I also experienced the togetherness and sense of community of 2020. Some other personal and professional relationships flourished. I also found new work and experienced professional growth in new ways, in different ways.
As a result of the year’s chaos, I was asked to work on projects for new companies with new types of work I had never done before. It was soon clear that these projects were outside of my normal skillset and knowledge base, and it was a challenge for me to understand the strange (to me) methods and thought processes being used. And honestly, I panicked. I was trying to bend and contort my brain in ways it didn’t want to bend, and it wasn’t working. I feared I had overestimated my skills and just wasn’t capable of doing work outside of my comfort zone.
Then, instead of trying to contort my brain to fit the work, I contorted the work to fit my brain’s method of logic. And it worked! I found a way to use my “different” brain to do the same work in a different way. My weird brain didn’t hold me back, it helped me succeed. (And, as an added bonus, the company was impressed with my efficiency and innovation and actually asked me to develop my method into new procedures for them to use in the future!)
These breakthroughs led to my New Year’s Resolution for 2021: I will use my differences to make a difference. Different isn’t bad, it’s just…different, which is good! What would be the point of collaborating with people who think just like you? Without different perspectives and skills, there would be no innovation or progress. We all have something unique to offer, and every brain can bring something different to the table. Therefore, I would like to contribute to 2021 by offering my own unique, weird, different brand of logic to anyone in need of some…different-ness.
So, in a crazy year when nothing made sense, I managed to make sense of the nonsense by using my differences to make a difference. Whew…I hope 2021 isn’t this exhausting.
