I WOULD say that everyone would agree that this past year has been interchangeably "challenging", "different", and to a certain extent, "life - changing".
Even if you are the type who does not travel, the 12 weeks Malaysia was under lockdown was a difficult time, with schools suspended and most commercial businesses restricted.
Eight months on, things are not back to "normal", at least not the normal that we know. "Back to normal" is a mantra that we need to tell ourselves.
The truth is, it will take a long time before our lives become as they were before, if ever. I was in Washington D.C. when 9/11 happened.
I remember how things almost seemed to change overnight: security at the airport became almost fortress-like. Everyone who was getting on a plane was seen as a potential security threat.
20 years on, in February 2020, before the pandemic was declared a pandemic, security at the airport was as tight as ever. Can you imagine how much of an impact this global pandemic would have on travel, on contact, on our social lives?
If nothing else, 2020 has been a teacher of sorts. It has taught us that no matter how powerful you may be, you can be brought to your knees by the smallest of creations, much like the lesson in H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. For Malaysia, 2020 was to have been the year that we became a developed country, the culmination of all that we had aspired to, worked for, and dreamed of.
I would still say that we achieved Vision 2020, though in a more philosophical way. We now understand that perfect vision doesn't have to mean seeing very far. It can also mean seeing and acknowledging the smallest of particles around us. This year was also to have been our second attempt at a Visit Malaysia Year.
In 2014, we had to scrap all the plans and promotions when one plane went missing, and another was shot down. If before, there were those of us who counted it a personal achievement not to lose bags in their multitude of travels, this year we count it a major achievement if we have not lost anyone we know to the pandemic.
This year has tried to teach us to appreciate our own company more. The quarantine period gave us time for ourselves. Family members who saw each other only on weekends and at night now found themselves spending days on end closeted with each other.
Books that never got read, movies that never got viewed, and articles that never got written, found themselves the centre of attention.
All of a sudden, getting to work on time was not the be-all and end-all it was before. Ensuring that we actually had work to go to, became paramount. And we found out that the rest of the world could actually live without us.
Many found that they had to change their mindset about what was important in their lives. Families separated by distance and different areas relied even more heavily on technology to strengthen their bonds, while long-lost friends finally found the time to say "hello" to each other.
We have always been taught the highest form of calling is when you put others before yourself, and nowhere nor at no other time was this more apparent than when frontliners left their families to answer the call of duty.
Travel came to a near absolute halt, but only in the physical sense. It did not stop us from dreaming, from aspiring, and from envisioning.
Social media was awash with #throwback or #flashback, trips down memory lane of a poignant and much-cherished vacation.
Employees found different ways to execute work. Online businesses boomed, from home cooked meals delivered daily, to zoom yoga, and to online masterclasses. Those who could not adapt soon found themselves going under.
Captains of the hospitality industry found themselves challenged to be more innovative to generate revenue. Witness the Flight To Nowhere, hotel Staycation packages, and limited seminar mixed with webinar packages.
The herd mentality of doing business — doing without thinking — is quickly becoming a thing of the past. At no other time can we actually say, "What a year it has been", and actually mean it, as a global collective.
Goodbye 2020. We might not miss everything about you, but we will certainly remember most of what you taught us.
The writer is a foreign service officer, who writes on international affairs with particular emphasis on Africa
