2021

 

it has been fun... i guess?

Here we are. A few more weeks left into what can be considered as the second worst year in all of humanity. After that, we will be moving on into expecting so much out of 2022 that we will all cry into depression when we realize that the New Years celebrations do not equate to a ultimate reset button, but instead indicate a set reminder that it can been 1 year and we still have not yet solved the problems that has turned the entire planet into a burning shithole along with the thousands of new problems the world decided to push out on the way. To be completely frank, you can probably see that I am not that excited for the festivities to come a few days after Christmas Day. People may or may not agree with this, but I feel that we overhype the new year, especially knowing how dogshit late 2019 and the entirety of 2020 was. We have dealt with almost 2 or so years of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccinated so many people, discovered new variants of the virus, and some people throughout have even realized how stupid and moronic most of the people we have elected to power are.

I do not really think New Years Eve should be celebrated like the big reset button every treats it to be. No body actually accomplishes their resolutions to "Get fit" and "be better"; furthermore, we still have to look back into the previous year and remember that we have a to do list of bullshit to figure out. When I was a kid, I had this stupid mindset where each new day is a big reset and all of my problems are automatically resolved. Didn't even bother to care about what day in the week it is. As I got older I realized how dumb that was and learned the hard way that problems always follow you until the very end, even the ones you thought you have gotten figured out a long time ago. "Time is running" my mom would usually say to me whenever she believed I was going to be running late for something. I always hated whenever I was told this because I hate being reminded of it. I fully know and acknowledge the bloody fact that it is running and I am significantly slower than it. The same can practically be said for everyone in the world. Either we are always trying to do the impossible task of outrunning time or we are just sloshing around not watching the shitstorm outside and not doing anything about it. I am not going to do a whole motivational spiel and tell everybody to be energetic and motivated to do shit through the magical powers of GRIT or some cringe inspirational pneumonic device, instead what I am going to do is just hope by all hell that the world doesn't jump deeper in the vat of  steaming shit we have plunged ourselves into already.

What I feel celebrating 2022 should be about is not only looking into the numerous achievements and advancements that the world has made despite of the horrid times we are in today, but also a constant reminder that those same problems from 2021 and beforehand still haunt us wherever we may be. In my opinion, I find it very stupid and selfish to hear people all over the globe say that the pandemic is "over" because their government decided to lift up restrictions to significant degrees, because those are the same people that go out to the streets and wage protest against government by the time they snap the restrictions back because of a surge of cases. I hate being locked down as much as the next guy; my entire existence has been sitting down in this desk and typing this shitty spiel; however, we have to accept the fact that the COVID-19 will live with the world for the rest of our lives. Very sad that the "End of the World" will be from a natural virus rather than being punished by "God" or being invaded by spoopy aliens because Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos were being annoying lil' shits. Oh Well.

With that whole COVID rant out of the way, I would just like to say that 2021 was slightly better than 2020. When we look at the shit storm that was 2020 and compare it to 2021, we have to consider the fact that humanity should've been used to the whole pandemic thing by now. Last year, Australia and California became international campfires; Chadwick Bosman, Koby Bryant, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg died; Black Lives Matter was sparked because of how shit American Policing was; and the Philippines faced both Typhoon Ulysses and the shutdown of ABS-CBN. Some ugly parts to a pretty shitty year, I know. 2021 isn't any better because we went through events such as the the US Capitol Siege; The coup against Aung San Suu Kyi; the Taliban reestablishing rule over Afghanistan; The implementation of the Anti-Terror Act in the Philippines; and the general deterioration of democracy throughout the world. Hell, the COP26 Summit, one the most anticipated and ambitious meetings of the minds to battle climate change in the world, completely failed to establish anything substantive.

The world is currently covered in death and we are all indoors trying to basically not die. 2021 may be as shit as 2020 was, but there was a reason why I said it was "slightly better". In this year alone, Barbados was finally declared a Republic with Rhianna as their national hero; Malaysia and North Korea severed relations (hey, this was funny to me); Joe Biden took command as the President of the United States; and Filipinos finally got recognized in the international stage with Hidilyn Diaz winning the Philippines' FIRST gold in the Olympics and Maria Resia becoming the first Filipino to win a NOBEL PRIZE! In my view, out of all the horrible shit that is going on in the world, there is at least some glimmers of awesomeness that make the world a less horrible place... to a minimal but extremely satisfying extent.

Looking back into the year, I have achieved a lot more than I did in anywhere last year. I am not referring to academic or competition achievements, but mainly personal achievements that meant a lot to me and helped me figure out myself more. I basically came out as LGBTQ, being Aromantic Non-Binary, which went on smoothly cos nothing much really changed. I became an atheist, which I will hopefully explain later on. I also got a better handle in how to get shit finished up so that I can play more Dungeons & Dragons, because that game became such a integral part of keeping me sane now. 

Overall, this year was shit. However, it was the kind of good kind of shit that makes you feel a bit lighter. You have to do stuff in your own way to learn about what makes your shits less shit and keep taking those good shits and eventually you will be able to take the best shit in the world. Similar thing can be said about the next year, do what you can to make yourself and probably your community happy and keep going towards the goal of happy times and rainbows. But always remember that with every good shit, there are a shit ton of bad shits. The world can do that as well and that shits gets mighty painful. 

Holy Shit. We survived another year. Let's hope the world doesn't shit on us again.

Happy Holidays.