Hindsight is 2020

 This year is drawing to a close and only one word can describe it: unprecedented. 

Every year I set myself an army of goals but in 2020 I quickly realised that I needed to adjust my expectations. 

The first sign of the potential apocalypse this year was the Australian bushfires. 

Just as the smoke had cleared came the first news of COVID-19 and the pandemic that would sweep the world. 

I immediately jumped to calm leadership mode. I knew because of my disability I had to keep my family and myself safe but I also wanted to help those suffering. So I dramatically increased my social media presence posting uplifting messages. 

I felt that just the pictures weren’t cutting through enough so I moved to Phase 2 of my plan which was to create a series of videos drawing on my life living with a disability and the lessons it has taught me. 

To keep myself calm during the peak times of stress in the pandemic I turned to literature. I started 2020 by reading Ryan Holiday’s Ego is the Enemy and ended the year with Barack Obama’s A Promised Land. 

Just when we thought the pandemic and the bushfires were all we had to deal with this year, stories coming out of the Disability Royal Commission forced me to supercharge my involvement in the disability community. I rang all my disability contacts and committed to as many video conference training sessions and seminars that I could because in 2020 we needed disability advocacy more than ever.

To augment my advocacy work and seminars I committed to a strict schedule of blog posts that I was able to complete and The Humanity Platform has now surpassed 6000 views. 

Due to COVID-19 my acting life was put on hold this year but I was still able to maintain the visibility for future projects. 

In order to help the community and myself stay focused I highlighted as many fantastic leaders as I could. This made me realise that in terms of leadership I have long way to go but luckily life is a marathon and I consider myself in the middle of the pack at the moment but when the right time comes I know I will take the lead. 

I know in 2021 and beyond my plan is to be to Australian acting what Dylan Alcott is to tennis. 

Another small yet significant achievement in this turbulent year was hitting my creative writing target of fifteen poems. A fair proportion of which are on this very blog. 

Overall when we look back at 2020 in hindsight it will be a year where we were able to make small steps to keep moving forward and learn together that we can see off any crisis. 

In Hindsight

Hindsight is 2020, it’s almost perfect vision;

We faced disaster after disaster but through unity we were able to avoid a catastrophic collision.

Through creativity we were able to see our global humanity.

Through hindsight we look back and see how the pandemic took us down a different track. 

We had to put our 2020 vision aside and hold on for the unprecedented ride.

As someone the world considered in the vulnerable category

I have never felt so unsure of my disability and whether it would stop me from being the brave leader I profess to be. 

Staying calm and strong was my number one chore; the millennial generation was tested like never before.

In hindsight how will history look back at our fight?

When we look back at COVID-19 in the rear view mirror, 

Will our actions and humanity really look any clearer?

Will the world learn lessons from the year 2020 bring forth new growth aplenty and see this as a guiding light in hindsight?

Chris Van Ingen ©️ 30 August 2020