2020… Verily with hardship comes ease… 2021 by Salvia Qazi

A wave of joy and laughter crashes in, embracing the entire globe as the clock strikes 12 and the magical day arrives. It’s officially 2021. No more listening to Sad news in the morning. No more worrying about the ‘curve.’ No more hiding behind Masks and layers of sanitizer. This year is going to break the chains of Isolation and we’ll be free once again. I can feel the sky being a brighter blue and the winter sunshine falling warmer on my skin that now breathes freely in the fresh air. Everything is going to be fixed as Covid vanishes and the world is finally going to be at peace now. And why wouldn’t it be? The cursed year has officially ended. Or… has it?

What are we? But beings with our funny delusions. You still don’t get it, do you? There was no cursed year. There is no magical day that will fix everything. The sky is the same blue, and it’s the same Covid fused air that we’ve been breathing. This year cannot bring us a magic wand that will replenish everything it deprived us of in 2020 because in the end what is 2021 but 2020(1)? Unless….

… Unless we stop being the Damsel in distress and be that magic wand ourselves. Perhaps it’s finally time we stop making memes on the guy who ate the bat and start taking responsibility ourselves because, in the end, we are all in it together. You and I, together. Each one of us. It might seem minor, but Nations stand on the shoulders of every individual and we can’t push ourselves in the ditch by our own hands just because Shabana refused to wear a mask or Bashir couldn’t live without partying with his friends. Each and every single one of us counts, our every move, every action, every decision counts. I am equally responsible for myself as I am responsible for the rest of the 7.8 billion people.

It can be scary, and dark but we’re not lost. We are here and we need to stop abandoning ourselves. Stop repeating this myth about life and death that will land in our lap or evade us forever. Build a humble, flawed life from the rubble and cherish that. There is nothing more glorious on the face of the earth than someone who refuses to give up, who refuses to give in to their most self-hating, discouraged, disillusioned self, and instead learns, slowly and painfully, how to relish the feeling of building a hut in the middle of the suffocating dust.

Is it going to be the same? How is it going to affect my academics? Will I get to take part in that national event? The questions undoubtedly cloud over us with an overwhelming trepidation of what the future may or may not hold. We panic and question our intentions, reassessing the situation and returning to our initial thoughts. At times we feel as if we have fallen into a never-ending cycle. But have we so quickly forgotten what our Creator has reassured us?

Allah says in the Qur’an, “But they plan, and Allah plans. And Allah is the best of planners”.

For how can we expect to plan for the unknown when the All-Knowing Himself has it all written? Why do we fear? And so with that in mind, we grasp onto our faith, hold on to our heart, and utter the words we’ve so beautifully conditioned to repeat whenever we were in doubt back in our classrooms, “bismillah,” As we start a new beginning.

But new beginnings do not just begin with new schedules and goals, They also embody an endeavour for sympathetic character and a moral conscience, one that entails understanding that we are humans with minimal vision on our own futures. That it is okay, to worry, to plan and to rationalize logic. But with all of that, it is rather imperative to remember that certain elements are truly beyond our control and that He is the best of planners.

So with a new year ahead of us and a new perspective in mind, here’s to new beginnings, all under His perfect planning.

Let it begin, bismillah.

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Generian readers are no stranger to Salvia’s (A1-G) brutally honest satirical pieces and jabs at the absurdity of the human condition. She has yet again shown that her artillery of iron(y) remains rust-free despite the lockdown fueled deterioration all around with her sardonic “2020.. Verily with hardship comes ease..2021,” juxtaposing her cynicism for the present with a hopeful message to save the future.

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Cover Photo by Craig Adderley from Pexels