Remember the Oregon Trail game you played in elementary school?
You’d come around the corner, get cholera, and have to go back.
Translation to 2020: Whoops you got Covid, start over.
Your sister would get bitten by a snake and require medical attention.
Translation to 2020: Protestors vandalized, looted and robbed your store, better luck next month.
We’re dealing with our own game of Oregon Trail here in 2020. The way I look at it, is we can succumb to the hurdles of 2020, complain, kick and scream. Or, we can take the 5 months we have left and make it a great year. Repair those wagon wheels, suck out the snake venom and find every silver lining we can, whether that is personal, financial, or emotional.
As a proud member of the Oregon Trail Generation (1977-1984, yes its a real thing), I have become an adult during 9/11, hit my professional stride during the 2008 financial crisis and experienced a global pandemic during my childbearing/raising years. Not to mention, the age of dealing with school shootings and the age of misinformation. So, I guess the way I look at it is that 2020 is just a bump in our trail. How we react and deal with it is more important than what actually happens this year.
So, how will you look back on 2020? How can you make it a year to be proud? You still have 5 months to make yourself proud. And while you’re at it, help out another settler on the trail. They’re just trying to make the best of this game, too!