Last year was so strange and plans were canceled and we have had to redirect our focus onto our health and our families. Even tho I have had a lot of grief for 2020 and some things that have happened in my life that was heartbreaking I did have a really good year, and maybe that is the wrong thing to write here because so many have lost their jobs, lockdowns, the economy in many countries have gone down etc, and I have a lot of heartbreaking changes in my life ever since I came home from Australia, but I still like to focus on the positive things that have happened in my life since I came back home. I feel extremely grateful for many things that have happened in my life, and they wouldn’t have happened if it weren´t for me having to go home way earlier than expected.

Last spring I was supposed to spend three wonderful months in Melbourne, Australia and I was supposed to spend it with a person that I care about, but then Corona happened and I had to change my plans very sudden and go home instead. I was only able to be there for 12 days and I would be lying if I indeed say that it broke my heart having to leave Australia. It is sooo far away and it took my 1 day to get there (23 hours to be exact) so it is not as if you go there for a week end or so so it hurt badly having to leave that beautiful country. I had dreamt about going to Australia all my life but other things always came in between so this this was the perfect opportunity for me to go there (or so I thought), but then Corona happened and made me change all my plans. I know many people´s dreams have been taken away from them so I don´t feel sorry for myself, but it still s*cks big time that I couldn’t be there for three months since it is sooo far away. But I know I can go back there once the world has gone back to a new normal again and I will go back one day!

But despite the pandemic and all the grief and the sadness and frustration I felt last year due to the pandemic and other things that happened in my life I also had good things that happened to me that I am very grateful for! Therefor I want to write about all those amazing things that happened this year that I am grateful for:

1. I was able to be a substitute preschool teacher at a wonderful preschool this spring for a longer period of time and there was able to make money and to be social during the pandemic. (altho I had been a substitute there before going to Australia too so i knew the teachers and the kids before).
2. I had an amazing supervisor for my examensarbete that really supported me
3. I got to know an amazing mum who’s kids I got to babysit for a period of time and that period was really amazing AND she lived next to an ice cream shop so I was able to eat a loot of really good ice cream this spring and summer hehe
4. It was amazing weather this spring in Sweden and also most of the summer AND September which felt really good!
5. I could go on many day trips to really beautiful places this summer with friends
6. I was able to go on a ”home vacation” in a Swedish island called Öland with a good friend of mine. It was my first time there and and it was beautiful there! We were also able to see two other cities and the 3rd one (Karlskrona) was beyond beautiful. It was just sooo nice to see something else than Skåne and to be on vacation which made me truly relax.
7. The pandemic made me appreciate Sweden on a whole other level. Normally I would have gone on vacation abroad but because of the pandemic it felt more appropriate to go within Sweden (this was in late July so it was after that the restrictions had changed so we could go wherever we wanted to within Sweden). Sweden is a really beautiful country and I was blessed to be be able to see Öland and Kalmar and Karlskrona. And I also to be able to go there with my good friend.
8. I really appreciated that I was able to see my friends and we had no lockdown (knock on wood).
9. I really appreciated my family and that I was able to see my sister and her family who live in Stockholm that we, because of the pandemic, weren’t able to see for four months this spring, so when we could see each other this summer, that was just the best feeling of appreciation.
10. I was able to live in our summer house for six months, from April to September and to live so close to the nature and the sea, that was soo good for my soul to live there, and to see my family and our dogs everyday for six months and that was an amazing feeling.
11. My parents (ok my mum) decided to get a puppy! We have a dog already named Bella, but they wanted a puppy as well and Daisy was actually born on the same day that I went home from Australia. I would say that Daisy is the best thing that has happened in 2020. She has given us so much positive energy and joy and happiness.
12. I was able to work on myself on a whole other level this spring, I meditated a loooot and it really made me feel better about myself. I worked on my self love a loot this spring and that felt really good!

I am a much stronger and happier version of myself now and it is because of everything that happened, that I had to go back home after only 12 days and that made me to really work on myself and I am soo grateful for that now. I would never have worked so much on myself and I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to work so much at that preschool this spring nor have had the opportunity to get that babysitter job if it weren´t for me having to go home earlier than expected.

I think that once everyone (or most of the population at least) have been vaccinated that 2021 will be a very good year!