2020; A Review.
What a year! To many, the year 2020 was the longest year in the past few decades — It really was. To a Nigerian — It’s the year the youth stood up and fought to end police brutality through the #EndSars campaign. To an African-American — It’s the year the community amplified the #BlackLivesMatter campaign against racial discrimination and injustice. To humanity — It’s the year we battled a global pandemic.
The year presented different versions of itself to every individual irrespective of our shared grief during a particularly uncertain time.
Kindly spare me a few minutes of your time as I take you through my perspective of this uniqueness.
Characters, motions and ink
In my journey of learning, I have come to realise that the goal is to acquire relevant knowledge that, when combined with your personal experiences, allow you to better understand the world around you and shape your opinion about a subject matter — and not necessarily dictate your view on issues. I saw this come to play in how I consumed literature this year; I questioned many positions of the authors while thoroughly learning with an open mind.
This year, I read roughly twenty books and watched a couple of docu-series spanning across global economics, cooperate fraud, world war two, psychology, religion, sports, fiction, entrepreneurship and innovation, productivity, marketing and general non-fiction.
In a bid to manage my time, I decided not to see any new series on Netflix aside from the ones I have been following. Well, my wife made me see ‘Locked Up’, I stopped after the second season.
Watching the moving graphs
The pandemic affected many businesses in the world and many lost their means of livelihood, I got a 10% salary cut in the heat of the pandemic and some of my investments yielded lesser returns.
I took my investment game to a new level by trying out stock, it’s been a great year for Tesla so far while I recorded some loss on Nikola shares. I have been learning the ropes and it’s very satisfying to see your own money grow — those little spikes, the same way buying your first car to celebrate your birthday can be quite rewarding.
J’apprends le francias.
For a very long time, I’ve had this interest in learning French, so, I started learning French on Duolingo. This is my second attempt at learning French and I think I have cracked it.
The app breaks the learning process in short biteable modules with multiple levels. Each level also has multiple lessons that ensure students are familiar with the new words and their usage. The whole experience is gamified to encourage consistency.
Career
Having practised and mastered the art of media planning and buying for several clients across diverse verticals over the course of five years, the need to expand the scope of what I do at work knocked harder this year.
This year, I had the opportunity to work directly with some of our clients in the capacity of a project (not only media) manager. Though many of the projects were media-intensive, I was able to quickly understand the need of the client and work with a team to meet the clients’ strategic, creative, content and media demands. This holistic understanding will be handy for my next role, which I’m looking forward to this year.
I wrote a couple of articles this year, phew! I’m proud of myself. Some need a final proof-reading and are yet to be published but the art itself is what I’m proud of. You can read the introduction to AdFraud here.
I had the privilege to virtually train members of a local Google Business Group during the lockdown on how on small businesses can realise maximum value from their advertising budget. It was an impactful one and the feedback was encouraging to say the least.
The soda strike
In an attempt to live a more healthy lifestyle, I replaced raw sugar with honey and I totally avoided soda.
I didn’t run much this year, didn’t resume tennis fully until later in the year ( played against the wall during the lockdown) and I didn’t cycle as such. However, I continued with my daily 100 push-ups for the third straight year.
The #OkUnion
Drum rolls, please….This is definitely the best part of my year! I tied the knot with my wife as we both decided to live the rest of our lives together.
I am glad we made the decision to formalize our two-year-old relationship. It’s a wonderful experience living with someone that genuinely loves and cares for you, someone that wishes the best for you in this world and in the hereafter, that person you want to raise and mentor your children with, the person that makes all the tension of the world feel weightless, the person you love to watch and admire while they sleep.
I’m sure it’s going to be a journey with many ups and downs. I look forward to learning, growing, understanding our differences and celebrating our wins together. I pray to The Almighty to bless our union.
2021
This year is filled with many plans, I can’t even start. Many will require absolute dedication and a test of grit.
2020 taught me to create my own opportunities — asked and got more responsibilities at work, got an admission to study a Masters degree in Germany without having the prerequisite degree. I’m going to do more of that this year.
The support and love I received from my family and friends during my wedding ceremony were overwhelming! I look forward to preserving the relationships that matter as I build more connections.
Here are some of the docuseries/documentaries I saw on Netflix in 2020;
Dirty Money
The Last Dance
The China Hustle
100 Humans
Sex Explained
The Greatest Events of WWII — In Colour
Interior Design Masters
Minimalism
The Social Dilemma