Labor Day signifies the “end” of summer in much of the US. A last hurrah, usually marked with a party doing outdoor, summery things a final time before settling down into the coziness of fall. (Unless you live in the southern US where it will be summer for at least another month, if not two.) But this year, of course, everything is different.
There are plenty of people who still partied, but even those who are ignoring the social rules and making things worse for the rest of us will agree with me on one thing: shit’s been rough, yo. (And man, if only they could extrapolate how shitty it is for the rest of us doing absolutely nothing when they think they’re slightly modified schedule is a hardship. But I digress…) It’s been a weird half of a year, and I know a lot of bujos went unused, goal trackers trashed in May, empty dotted pages without their Micron lines.
So how can that be turned around for the last third of the year? We’ve got four months left, what can we do with them?
In one of the writing Facebook groups I’m part of (I know) there was a thread asking how members’ goals are going. The majority of responses were “this year’s a wash,” and I get it: most people feel that way because that is their reality, especially with screwed up living situations, lost jobs, anxiety, stress, depression, illness, death, but when I say “the year isn’t over,” it’s not just a threat.
I don’t mean to get all toxically positive on you, Dear Reader, but we’ve got 33% of 2020 left. Even if you account for holidays (not that we should be going very far or doing too much for them), there’s at least a quarter of 2020 to go. Now, come New Years Day things are not going to magically get better, even with a different president in the White House. Viruses, capitalism, and inequality heed not the human fabrication that is a calendar. But time will have passed. How will you grow in that time? What will you acomplish?
Every day can be your day one. Even December 31st.
A.K. Caggiano 