2020 in a few words

At the beginning of 2020 I had 2 main things on my list to do, one was to finish reading at least 40 books in the whole year; at the end of 2018 with my university and office and life I was able to read 36 books in the whole year which was the highest number of books I've ever read in a whole year, and thought of upping my game by reading at least 40. Although, I've always wanted to read 50 books a year, but really pushing myself wasn’t on the agenda so from 36 to 40 wasn’t such a big deal I could do it. But then guess what happened? Covid-19 happened and we were locked down in our houses for months, all my other entertainment outlets were closed and all I had left was a TBR list. 

So I kept on reading and reading and here towards the end of the year I'm at 60 books which is now the highest number of books I've read in a year, almost 1 book a week! And that is my biggest accomplishment for the year. 

Oh wait, the second thing I had planned for 2020 was taking two trips in the year. When I was planning my year at the beginning; I wanted 1 local trip and 1 international trip and that was something I was able to achieve as well Alhumdulillah. 

At the beginning of 2020 I went to Quetta and Ziyarat for my local vacation, a place I've never been to before. It had snowed a week before I travelled to Ziyarat and had the best snow experience ever.. It was flooded with tourists, plenty of people from Karachi were lured by snowfall and an inexpensive holiday. For some snow is not a big deal, but for me it is, I've only just experienced snow once before. Soon after i returned all fresh and enthusiastic the world closed down due the covid, and before i could use all that fresh energy to get back to work, i was locked in for 2-3 months without any entertainment. 

The lockdown was a hard time for everyone, being inside with the least amount of human contact, no entertainment. I focused all my energy on reading and so I was able to complete my target of reading 40 books almost half way through the year. And because i was doing such a great job at reading so much i decided to challenge myself further by setting my limit to 50 books, which again i was able to accomplish and by the end of December i had read 60 books.

Having spoken about 2020 I want to now look at 2021 and decide what to do with the coming year. For one, I thought why don’t I look at my own city from a tourist perspective, from the eye of someone who’s never been here. Living in Karachi I take it for granted. I live that normal day to day life, for a change why can i not explore the city and see it as an outsider may look at it. So i’m going to go look up places and find at least 10 new places within Karachi that i’ve never been to before. This excludes trying out new places to eat by the way. 

I would like to travel, but nothing huge, just a trip to meet my cousin and best friend in Islamabad. With the VIP treatment i get there, this is a vacation as grand as any. 

I also would love to focus on my blogging, so i set up a goal of writing at least 10 articles for my blog in 2021, which includes this one (phew - struck off one). And i’ve been planning on a vlog for some time but never got around the idea of achieving it, maybe 2021 is the year when i will be able to achieve this. 

Of course reading is one of the most important things that I'm going to continue doing. I may not be able to achieve reading 60 books but I will keep the number to at least 50 and try to maintain that. 

Above all of these activities, this year i wish to spend more time with myself, reflecting on what I have accomplished and what more i’d like to achieve. I want to spend more time being my own friend. I think with all the things I've been doing, I do take out time for myself but I don’t get to be with me, which is something that I want to change. I want to have more conversations with myself - you know to get expert advice *wink*.

These are just some of the human plans I make, at the end Allah is the best planner of all. I don’t even know if I'll be able to drink the 8 glasses of water i’ve promised myself this morning. But Allah willing I'll see the end of 2021 with all of these resolutions accomplished Ameen.