My List of Thanks: 2020

2020…Wow. There’s a lot that can be said for this year and much of it would revolve around feelings of negativity. We’ve all been down at some point this year. There’s been tons of events and things we had high hopes for that never came to fruition. As years have gone, it’s been a tough one but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t something we could learn from or even be thankful for having experienced.

Usually, I’d insert my list of running related thanks here. There will be some here for certain but it’s going to be full of other things as well since there was so little formal running events available.

1. My Family – Despite the craziness the world has thrown at us this year, we have gotten through it together. We’ve not been able to do much but what we’ve done, it’s been with each other. Big family trip to the West? Shot down! We pivoted to an RV trip in Southern Indiana and it was awesome! It might have been pretty close quarters and I was more than ready to sleep in my own bed by the next to last night, but I’ll always smile when I think about that trip.
2. My health – I’m healthy, so don’t worry there but I was in considerably better shape this time last year. I never got Covid-19, I put on the “Covid-19” as in pounds. It’s not always going to be easy to maintain a healthy lifestyle in this pandemic filled world, both physically and mentally, but I appreciate what I had and determined to go get that back.
3. My team – They could have seen this as an opportunity to be done with it all. It was a thought myself too but this group of men and women are awesome and excited about next year.
4. Our sponsors – To Sue Teasdale and Coldwell Banker, Ruoff Mortagage and Kim Gonzalez, OmniSource and Mike Franio, Sara Ayres and her team at Don Ayres Honda, and Cap n’ Cork and Rachel Burkholder, THANK YOU! We simply couldn’t do all that we aim to without the support of our community leaders. It is empowering to have people such as you and businesses like yours backing our efforts. We are truly grateful for you and will continue to work hard to make the investment you put into us bear many fruits for NeighborLink through us.
5. 2020 – It was lined up to be an amazing year and much of that amazing was dashed away. Somehow we’re a month away from the year being over but the fight still rages on. Sometimes you don’t know what you have till you don’t and there was a whole lot of don’t this year. It’s been difficult to see things to be appreciative of in the moment but I say this year has been a brake check. It’s time to look at those things we took for granted, be appreciative of them, and move forward which brings me to….

2021!

I’m thankful for 2021 for this reason. It’s a new day, a new month, and New Year. Yes, we’ll still be immersed in the middle of the pandemic when it begins but I’m holding on to this hope:

There will be a day when science is followed, vaccines are given, numbers will fall, and and people will smile again when life begins to be restored.

What’s your favorite part of a good movie? Is it the good guy running roughshod over the bad guys from beginning to end? No! It’s the comeback. If we were in a Rocky movie and we were Rocky, we’ve lost the match already but here’s the good part….

Mickey’s standing before us yelling at us to train work harder than we ever have before and Survivor is tuning up for a hell of a training montage. It’s coming everyone. 2021 is The Comeback! We’re going to get better by working harder, getting healthier, and ultimately, smack Drago Covid to the ground one last time. Shoot, maybe the Russians will even applaud.

So yes, I’m thankful for 2021 because it might not be great at the beginning but I’m a believer that when the comeback begins, it’s going to amazing!

What are you thankful for and what are you looking forward to most?

May you and yours, from my family and I, have a safe, healthy, and Happy Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,

Gabe