SIX REASONS 2020 ROCKED
Let’s be honest, 2020 wasn’t always awesome. But it wasn’t all bad either. We connected more, created more and got our work and life into some kind of balance. So, with total respect for those who’ve felt the tough stuff, here’s our take on some of the gifts of COVID.
RE-BENDING TIME
Did you ever really think about ‘time’ before the Lockdown? Most of us didn’t. We’d just note that there aren’t enough hours in the day, or days in the week, and double-down to prove ourselves wrong. Then time changed. A few short weeks in Lockdown felt like the longest weeks in forever. And now, time matters. We’re aware of it, we cherish it and we really don’t like to waste it.
DISCONNECTED CONNECTIONS
People need people, right? The fact that we couldn’t see each other meant that everyone made the effort to connect. We made calls, we sent texts, Zoom became a verb and our Nanas got into it. We had Friday drinks from wherever we happened to be and the focus shifted from ‘bleating the week’ to actually being social. ‘Together apart’ quickly became a cliché because we meant it and we made it happen.
WORK/LIFE RE-BALANCED
When your office is your dining table, you have to stop for lunch. And we did. With family, with flatmates, with homemade bread and experimental omelettes. And we talked. And because we were hanging with different people doing different things, we rarely spent our lunches talking about work. Add that to the thirty second commute and the need to juggle different priorities, and work became a thing to do around life - and it’s hard to switch back.
TRUMPISM TRUMPED
We can’t talk about 2020 without talking politics. Whichever way you lean, it was a big year for positive messaging. We were super proud to help Labour craft their story and land half of New Zealand’s votes. While over in the States we finally said ‘no’ to fake news, finger pointing and bullying bluster. Now it’s up to Biden to make America great again.
CRAZY CREATIVITY
What do you do when you’ve got nothing to do? You make stuff up. We picked up guitars, unpacked puzzles, crafted in the kitchen and more. Remember these guys and their Lockdown boogie? Or these guys celebrating in Sicily. Or these guys who shot movies from different continents in Cinema Quarantine. Everywhere you looked, from the crayons on the floor of the lounge to far-flung corners of the web, creatives got creative from quarantine.
HE WAKA EKE NOA
Boil it all down and the best of times in the worst of times were the times we spent together. Not just physically together or even virtually together. The whole world clubbed together emotionally. We circled our wagons around a common non-human enemy, washed our hands, bumped our elbows and immediately understood what everyone was going through. Because we were going through it too. ‘He waka eke noa’ - we’re all in this together. And that was the magic of 2020.