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If not you, then who?

Why 2021 can be your year despite the stains that 2020 left behind.

By Jaclyn BabersPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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After surviving a year like 2020, it's probably reasonable to assume that the sole reason for celebrating New Year's Day 2021 was making it to see that clock strike 12:00. If you're like me, then you did not anticipate 2020 being anything like it was. Many of us started off last year with our age-old routine of making resolutions. You probably shared a #LongPost with a cute picture or two and an inspirational quote (because what is a social media post without one of those, right) and it probably got so many likes that it fueled a feeble and barely-there motivation to see those resolutions through to December.

By the time March came around however, many of us were faced with a challenge far greater than COVID-19 alone and any effort and attention we'd given to those resolutions, even if hardly any at all, came to a screeching halt. Locked down and locked in, many of us were thrust into a corner that forced us to have to face our greatest opponent – ourselves.

If we can be honest for just a moment, 2020 not only solidified for many of us that while we do not like what we see in the mirror, there are clouds of insincerity and doubt hovering over us that prevent us from putting forth the effort that is necessary to change it. It put us in a position where we had to dig down to the innermost parts of our being to discover what we are truly made of and, for some of us, we found out that the soil was in rougher shape than we thought.

Many of us came head to head with roots from old wounds we thought had healed and discovered that they were just poorly bandaged. Others might have realized that they’d spent years blaming people for their past predicaments and current situations, only to stumble over their own name as the common denominator in all that has gone wrong in their life thus far. Or maybe some of us lost people, either intentionally or without warning, and we had to come to terms with the reality that we developed an unhealthy dependency on a flawed human being and gave them more power over our life than they deserved to have.

So now, as we continue to navigate cautiously through 2021, because 2020 seemed to suck the hope out of ever making plans again, I want you to ask yourself this question: if not you, then who? You may be wondering, "What does this have to do with resolutions and why should I care?" Well, here is why I believe 2021 can be your year despite the stains that 2020 left behind.

The reality is, if you made it to this new year, then you've been given a new opportunity to get "it" - whatever it means to you - right. Though 2020 may have impacted you physically, emotionally, financially, or even in all three ways, you are here today. You are alive and breathing and reading this. Though the wounds that 2020 caused you are still fresh and painful, you have been given another day to reflect upon what you made it out of and be grateful that your story did not end in a year that shook our globe to its core.

Even if you do not understand why you’re still here, the fact remains that you are and because you are, and because you have seen first hand that life can literally change from one instant to the next, what are you going to do with this new, and surely not promised, opportunity?

If not you, then who will be the living proof that somebody needs to believe that they, too, can rise above any and everything that tries to hold them down and back?

If not you, then who will show the world that even amid a pandemic, goals are still attainable, and life is still worth living?

If not you, then who will show people that they are not alive just to occupy space?

If not you, then who will show the generations behind us why the flame on the torch that we pass to each other is worth fighting to keep burning?

This is how I plan on spending this year. Writing to you, encouraging you, and, if need be, making you uncomfortable enough to be willing to take some risks and make necessary changes. Of course, I could sit here and spell out some bogus resolution that I know I have no intention of committing to. Or, I can generate something real daily and continue to pull from my heart and from my thoughts to exercise this muscle that I believe I was gifted with to build you up. For the sake of addressing the prompt, I choose the latter.

Writing to you is my fresh start.

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About the Creator

Jaclyn Babers

Happy wife | Boy mom | Jesus freak | Writing is kind of my thing

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