Rest and Rejuvenation Day 4: A Reflection on Work in 2020

If I could tell high school or even middle school me where I am currently, she would’ve laughed in your face. That Akchita would never have believed that I had not finished or even attempted to go to law school. The middle school/high school of cheetah had a plan and this plan was essentially set in stone. But little did she know that life was not as linear as she had hoped it would be. And if there was one area of her life that was going to see fast amounts of change, she never would have packed it to be her professional life. 

In September 2019 I moved to Shanghai, China to teach children English through Disney English. Now, as I write this post in December 2020, I am back to living in the states and my company no longer exists. One year ago from today I was finally understanding what I wanted out of my time in China, finding my footing at work, and really excited for what was to come in 2020. I was so ready for the fucking amazing year that I was going to have a 2020 that I never would’ve imagined what it’s become.

If there’s one word I can use to describe my work life in 2020 it would be adaptive. Now, if you had asked me a word in March or April or even June, I would have given you words such as “frustrating,“ “hopeful,“ and “unsure.“ The last thing I expected from my Chinese new year vacation home would be that guy would get stuck in the states. I also wouldn’t have figured out that I would be losing my job and that my company would be closing.

2020, like other areas of my life, has forced me to rethink what I consider work and how I want to build my career, whatever that might be. For the longest time I thought it was going to law school and being a lawyer but that’s changed in the past couple of years. Undergrad was a rough time and not what I expected my four years to be like. There had been a lot of moments where I really questioned what my future was going to look like.

I truly thought that my job in China was going to be around for at least a year or even more if I liked it enough. I don’t reevalutate my plans for my future until I’ve come to the point in that job where I think I need a break or I’m extremely unhappy. It’s been the wildest year, both good and bad, and I haven’t been this unsure of what’s been going on in my life. I have finally figured out what I wanted to do in 2021 in terms of work that I’ll share in another post.