We all have at least one friend who had their birthday during the lockdown and said, “No, this birthday didn’t count. I didn’t age because we’re on lockdown and 2020 doesn’t count.” I even had a friend who jokingly didn’t accept birthday greetings, so resolved were they not to count this year.

It was funny, but at the same time, I understood. How do we even come to terms with this year when we all felt so sedentary? Of course people would feel that this year was wasted.

Instead of getting to travel, we were all compelled to stay at home. Instead of being able to see our friends and go out on lunch dates and nights outs with them, we all made do with Zoom calls and Netflix parties. Instead of being able to come to work and go home and earn for our families, most Filipinos lost their jobs and were left to the mercy of government “aid.”

But we all stayed at home not just for our safety, but also because of how the whole situation was being mismanaged by the government (of course, that topic warrants a whole essay of its own).

So, a few weeks ago, when I turned 25 and had time off from work, I got to sort-of reflect on the year that has been, and I was so tempted to say, the way my other friends did, that I hadn’t gotten older because 2020 didn’t count. Given all the things that had happened – from the Taal Volcano eruption to this once-in-a-lifetime pandemic to the smuggling of vaccines – I was very, very tempted to just cancel this year altogether. Being a journalist and seeing all these news events first-hand, it was really hard to find a word to describe this year without resorting to expletives.

But no, I want this year to count. The past few weeks have made me realize that hating being stuck at home doesn’t mean we should discount everything else.

2020 was definitely something, because this was the year we were angry. This was the year we wanted to run outside our houses and scream at the top of our lungs because of government inaction, illegal arrests and inhumane killings, overwhelming work-from-home setups, House speakership rows, more arrests and killings, and eventually, helplessness. But we couldn’t, because of the pandemic. We were mad and wanted to do something about it, but we could not fully express our rage.

This was also the year we were forced to learn technology. I’m pretty sure it was not just me who had to muster all the patience in the world to teach my parents how to present slides on Google Meet and set up Zoom webinars. We learned how to use our bank cards to purchase stuff online because we could not go to the stores. We ended up understanding the efficiency of online banking. We taught ourselves to trust systems we were not familiar with, and grow with the changes.

This was the year some of us – myself included – learned how to step back. For so many years I had been convincing myself that I had a gazillion things to do every day, and that stopping (or resting) would not do me any good because it would just bury me in backlog. But this year, I struggled to rest. No matter how absurd this sounds, I had a really hard time learning how to slow down and take it easy, and I believe there are others who had a hard time, too.

This was the year we learned to appreciate the little things. Like being able to go out in the sun, and walk a few blocks around the neighborhood. Or that neighbor who baked more than a few ube cheese pandesals and gave you a piece or two. Or dining out instead of mustering all your energy to cook dinner at home. We appreciated the small things that people did for us every day, because we finally had the opportunity to spend time with them.

But at the same time, 2020 was the year we learned to appreciate the big things. The medical frontliners who worked with overused or overworn PPEs, the community kitchens that continued to cook hot food for those who needed it, the first responders who were right on the scene when it started flooding in Manila and Cagayan, and the people who told the truth and exposed the lies. (Oh, and Taylor Swift’s two new albums.) We also learned to thank each one of us who stayed at home, no matter how much it made us crazy.

So let’s stop saying that 2020 didn’t count. It definitely did. History books will one day tell us that it mattered. – Rappler.com