Jen McCown

I’ll tell you the truth: 2020 siphoned a lot of my teaching enthusiasm. (Well, the whole truth is that 2020 siphoned away a lot of all our enthusiasm away, for all kinds of things.)

But a friend asked me to submit a talk for a virtual user group. One of the best ways to come up with new content, easily, is to talk about what you’re enthusiastic about.

I am enthusiastic about Bullet Journaling. (A handful of you, who’ve hung out with me at various SQL events, can attest to this.)

Edit: I completely skipped everything having to do with the protests, racism, ableism, trans- and homophobia, continuing political issues, and the shooting of unarmed black men and women. It’s not an oversight; being a white person, I’d much rather you listen to better educated, more invested folks on these matters.

It’d be nice if I would consistently put my daily or weekly thoughts here, or in my journal, as opposed to carelessly dropping them on Twitter. After all, my own brain doesn’t really retain much in the way of the day to day (or really even memories in general). So each note I find from the past is a letter from the Ago.

I’ve seen a few notes from people, lamenting the absolute and complete loss of their new year’s resolutions for 2020.

“Spend more time traveling!” Yeah, not so much.

“Hang out with friends every week!” Ooh, no, no no no.

“Take up a new hobby!” Does watching The Great British Baking Show all the way through for the sixth time count as a new hobby? No? Okay then.

It’s okay that new year’s resolutions fail. They do that in normal, non-2020 years, too. But this year has got me thinking about something different…something we might call Old Year Reflections.

For me, professional Old Year Reflections might look like this:

• I did manage to work through the year. Productivity took a nosedive sometimes, but so did everyone else’s.
• I was able to use and improve our own products, in production environments. Being able to keep contributing to the Minion solutions is a big deal to me, so it’s a win.
• We were able to keep employing the folks we hired – and we hired them immediately before the pandemic hit – and I am so grateful for their skills and tenaciousness.
• I pulled back sharply from participating in the tech community. Like so many people, I’ve had to budget my time and energy a lot more closely than before. I am glad I got to attend the first virtual PASS Summit, and to have follow up conversations about what worked (and what didn’t) with other attendees.

Personal Old Year Reflections:

• If anything, I became closer with friends and family. For instance, I have a text group on my phone with three family members. All year long we’ve traded news, jokes, memes, and just generally kept in touch. It was really nice.
• I have learned so much about myself and my kids. We were already homeschooling and working from home before Covid-19 hit (and I am forever and ever grateful for that), but even so, the added stress has made us explore more techniques and cooler escapes than before. I’d certainly be happier if this version of 2020 hadn’t happened. But since it did, I’m glad we’ve been able to cope as well as we have.

And, as Berkely Breathed once put it, a wish for wings that work:

• I wish for a quick path to a reliable vaccine.
• I wish for you all to still be here with me, and healing from 2020, when November 2021 hits.
• I wish for better times ahead, especially for my fellow Americans of the LGBTQ+, neuroatypical, disabled, black, immigrant, and minority communities.

In other words, a little peace on Earth, and goodwill toward humankind, for 2021.

Thanks for being here, friends.

Photo by Kristopher Roller on Unsplash