This has been a tough and unusual year, to say the least. I’m home alone, my Christmas tree is lit, and I’m finishing up my preparations for the big day. Christmas Eve for my family was always a relaxing evening in front of a fire, watching Christmas shows, and having a drink. It was the calm before the storm, preceding the flurry of activity to fit in all of the family visits on Christmas day. And that’s what it is for me even now: a time to stop and reflect, enjoy a quiet moment, and celebrate my adult version of Christmas.

2020 has been a make or break kind of year. I started out the year working an amazing job and imagining my future there. Then the pandemic hit and before the end of the summer I was out of work. I was lucky…I had a job from March to August, but now my future as a college educator looks pretty bleak. Like many others, I’ve had to re-envision my future. I have begun doing freelance work again, which I’ve been doing on and off for 5 years. I revised my online profile to focus on my publishing experience and in the short time from September to December have secured a few clients. I have also been writing again and hope to share what I’ve been working on in the new year.

As with many times of crisis, opportunity comes knocking even if it’s not the opportunity you expected. I was recently invited to do an interview on The Gifters Podcast. I had to look it up because I hadn’t heard of it before. It turns out to be a pretty big deal: “The Gifters Podcast is an Apple 5-Star Reviewed Podcast with close to 100,000 listeners from 92 countries. They have interviewed 1,000+ entrepreneurs and inspiring individuals starting with their 1st guest billionaire and entrepreneur Elon Musk.” I didn’t feel I was entirely ready to shift gears, but dove in with both feet. It’s the kind of opportunity that you don’t turn down or ask to delay until next year. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to share, but despite all my preparation it sort of went in its own direction. If you’re interested in listening, the link is here: The Future of Publishing with Marcia Luke

And now I’ve begun to wonder if this is the path I was supposed to follow the whole time. Maybe it wasn’t the pandemic pushing me in this direction, maybe it’s just the natural course of my life unfolding. The point here is that I thought 2020 was going to break me, but it didn’t. I’ve turned it around through necessity, desperation, sheer determination, whatever you want to call it. If anything, 2020 has forced me to take a hard look at who I am, what I want to do, and where I am in my life. I suspect this is the case for many others as well and I hope that despite any disappointment, you can find the silver lining. There is an opportunity to seize even if you don’t quite see it yet. Sometimes the castle needs to be torn down and completely rebuilt.

So, cheers to 2021. Whatever it might bring, I will make it into what I want…because I can. And you can too.