To not understand why people are looking forward to 2021

[peasoup8]

I was chatting to a friend yesterday about how rubbish lockdown is and we were saying how crap this year has been for both of us. We talked about it for a while and then she said, 'Bring on 2021!' I've had a few other people say things like 'I can't wait until this year is over' and 'I'll be glad to see the back of 2020'.

I don't get it - do they think the virus is just magically going to disappear at midnight 31st December?

[BigBadVoodooHat]

Like I say, when you're losing your home it's hard to be optimistic.

Yes, I'm sure that must be very hard indeed.

But does that mean that everyone else is forbidden from attempting any element of positivity?

[Graciebobcat]

Because I would like to have a holiday, birthday parties, do sports with groups of people inside, go to concerts and you know, do normal things!

[PucePanther]

It's kind of hard to be glass half full when you're losing your home, but sure
Most people aren’t in that situation though. They’re expecting 2021 to be better.

[KodakNancyEurope]

I also think that saying “I can’t wait until this is over” would be too vague for most people to hang their hats on.

So many people are coming out of the initial shock of it all into a world where some are locked down and some not; where the news is at once positive and negative, sometimes in the space of a day.

It’s the uncertainty and not knowing what our world looks like folk wish would do one and that’s much more likely to happen next year and potentially the earlier part of the year too.

Don’t forget that lockdowns exist to prevent overwhelm in the health service and that will be past the worst in about ten weeks.

[NameChange84]

@peasoup8

People are basically trying to be optimistic that things will get better in the near future. Could you really not fathom that?

Like I say, when you're losing your home it's hard to be optimistic.

So presumably your industry was affected by the crisis? So the closer we get to a return to normal the better it is for you.

I sympathise but lots of us have lost things this year, jobs, homes, people we loved dearly. There’s a lot of grief and loss. But thinking people have no right to hope things will be better in the coming year won’t solve anything will it?

When I’ve been in a similar situation, I know how easy it is to get dragged into a bleak hole (as previously mentioned I was suicidal recently) but instead I’ve had to fight with everything in me. Sometimes that’s meant medication and therapy before I could make plans for my living or job situation so that I’m not left homeless or without any income.

It might be better for you, instead of being angry at others for hoping for better next year, to seek any help for your own mental well-being and see what can be put in place re accommodation and housing.

[Graciebobcat]

I'm sorry to hear that you might be losing your home. But for people who still have a job and money to spend can you not see they might be looking forward to living more interesting and varied lives again?

[KodakNancyEurope]

Ps my last tuppence worth:

We are dragging our asses to the end of 2020 one event at a time thus:

• celebrating our youngest turning 18.... months
  
• St Andrew’s Day
  
• St Nicholas’ Day
  
• Hanukkah
  
• Christmas Day
  
• Grandmas birthday (she’s abroad but we will celebrate)
  
• Hogmanay
  

that is how fucking desperate I am to count the year out and get over the line into next year. The actions of someone who’s mental health is teetering.

[peasoup8]

So other people cant look forward to their lives being better because yours wont?

Oh just sod off - that's not what I said at all

[lazylinguist]

Maybe just something like, 'I can't wait until this over' rather than implying things will automatically get better on 1st January, when we all know that's not true.

Don't be daft. Saying you're looking forward to next year doesn't mean you think that everything will magically get better on 1st January. It means you are hopeful that 2021 as a whole will turn out better than 2020. Which is a perfectly reasonable thing to say imo. I'm sorry things are tough for you, but that doesn't mean other people aren't allowed a little optimism.

[FourTeaFallOut]

Well posters have responded to your thread title which is To not understand why people are looking forward to 2021 and you don't seem to accept their optimism based on not much more than your own personal circumstances, so it does come across like that.

[peasoup8]

and you don't seem to accept their optimism based on not much more than your own personal circumstances, so it does come across like that.

I don't accept their optimism because I'm not convinced the vaccine will be effective (seeing is believing) and worry that we will be wearing sodding facemasks for years to come.

Anyway, this thread appears to be mostly full of smug middle class types whose biggest worry this year has been not getting next day Ocado delivery.

[BigBadVoodooHat]

Anyway, this thread appears to be mostly full of smug middle class types whose biggest worry this year has been not getting next day Ocado delivery.

Be honest: are you basically just spoiling for a fight because you're feeling angry and miserable?

[MarshaBradyo]

I don't accept their optimism because I'm not convinced the vaccine will be effective

Why not?

[lazylinguist]

Anyway, this thread appears to be mostly full of smug middle class types whose biggest worry this year has been not getting next day Ocado delivery.

You're basing that conclusion on what?

I don't accept their optimism because I'm not convinced the vaccine will be effective.

You're entitled to that opinion, but I'm not sure why you expect others to share it.

[Graciebobcat]

I'm not optimistic about the start of the year that's for sure. We need Brexit now like a hole in the head.

[KodakNancyEurope]

@peasoup8

and you don't seem to accept their optimism based on not much more than your own personal circumstances, so it does come across like that.

I don't accept their optimism because I'm not convinced the vaccine will be effective (seeing is believing) and worry that we will be wearing sodding facemasks for years to come.

Anyway, this thread appears to be mostly full of smug middle class types whose biggest worry this year has been not getting next day Ocado delivery.

I lost my home in April so not quite true OP.

[lazylinguist]

If it was sympathy you were after, you should have started a thread about your own situation rather than criticising anyone who's trying to see the positives. YANBU at all to feel fed up, and everyone would have sympathy for you having to sell your house etc.

[KodakNancyEurope]

Also; I can’t even get an Ocado delivery where I am now so extra shit.

[TheAdventuresoftheWishingChair]

Anyway, this thread appears to be mostly full of smug middle class types whose biggest worry this year has been not getting next day Ocado delivery.

That's just offensive. You have no idea what people are dealing with. I'm on your thread trying to help you and the loss I have suffered this year has been utterly devastating and goes far beyond losing a home, to be blunt. You have no idea who you're talking to on here. And newsflash, there are many other middle-class, comfortably off people who will have also suffered tragedies in this pandemic because being in that situation doesn't stop you losing a business/home/someone you love dearly. I think the friends I know who are on benefits actually almost feel the most secure right now, bizarrely, financially speaking. That is a bubble of people who are disabled and who know their income isn't changing. The people in my immediate social circle who are really worried and facing a lot of uncertainty are those in things like the arts. You can't make blanket assumptions - this will hit a lot of people in ways they hadn't anticipated when they chose careers.

If you want to be miserable, there is no one who can stop you but other people don't want to be that pessimistic. The vaccine news couldn't be better.

[Squiffany]

I cannot wait for this year to finish.

For the first time since the new millennium I have a bottle of real champagne for NYE And fully intend to drink it all. I’m usually in bed and asleep by 10pm on NYE as I normally work the early shift in the NHS on NYD (not this time though).

2020 can do one as far as I’m concerned.

[unmarkedbythat]

Most people aren't losing their home, though, so you can't expect them to have the same mindset as someone in the same horrible situation as you.

Our year has been shit and I don't expect 2021 to be great. I can see us getting into an absolute mess financially, my relationship with DH- who lost his job and has had a heart procedure along with other health issues- is hanging by a thread, my oldest child has just been re referred to camhs in a desperate attempt to keep him at his education placement which is unlikely to succeed, etc, but I really fucking HOPE 2021 is better because if I don't have that hope I am going to give up.

[KodakNancyEurope]

@Squiffany

I cannot wait for this year to finish.

For the first time since the new millennium I have a bottle of real champagne for NYE And fully intend to drink it all. I’m usually in bed and asleep by 10pm on NYE as I normally work the early shift in the NHS on NYD (not this time though).

2020 can do one as far as I’m concerned.

I’ll be in bed and asleep by 10pm if for no other reason than just to hasten the arrival of a new year that teeny bit quicker

Champagne for tea it is then :)

[BiBabbles]

Just because people look forward to the future doesn't mean that don't have problems now or foresee them in the future.

I had 4 years of nearly solid death watch of multiple relatives getting terminal diagnoses, caring, every phone call causing that panic feeling, every email from particular people giving that jolt. I'm in it again now with another relative with cancer. I've had years where the main thing was on our minds was that it would likely involve someone's funeral. I've had more than a few January and February funerals.

New Year's is still one of my favourite holidays. I look forward to it and our traditions around it each year. I'm not a "roll on" because I try to remain present, difficult as that is right now, but people expressing frustration at this year or pinning hopes on the next doesn't mean they're ignoring that next year could be hard too, they just don't want now and what's on them now.

It doesn't mean they're only worried about shopping. On top of my ill relative, I'm currently worried my ability to walk and use my hands in a stable manner is deteriorating again, my spouse works in hospitality and while he's currently safe from current cuts, it's not a great sector, my career is in the crapper and was my social life well before COVID, but this has made doing anything about either of those or my health difficult, and that's just off the top of my head and without bringing my kids into it. I'm still looking forward to New Year's. None of that will disappear, but some time together and to consider what we can do lifts my spirits.

[BogRollBOGOF]

Even before more certain news was energing on vaccines, I was optomistic for April onwards. Longer, warmer days and critically in this situation, the natural decline of respiritory illness. By September/ October when those risks rise again we'll be a long way to protecting the more vulnerable portion of the population and can be much more normal again.

Truely normal? I don't know. It will be great when indoor entertainments and events can reopen with normal capacities. But it should be a much better summer for outdoor evemts and the economy should be open up more reliably through the spring.

One benefit of smug middle classes, is that as soon as they are able, they will be able to put money back into the economy towards some recovery in the arts, hospitality etc. The impact on the economy should stabilise.

2021 should be over the worst of this in the big picture. That doesn't mean plain sailing on an individual level.

As to personal restrictions, as the weather warms up and cases drop, hopefully more and more people will drop the loathesome masks. People will meet up more and more because we've been isolated too long.

[1dayatatime]

I saw a quote a few weeks back:

"Enjoy Covid because the future is going to be hell"