2020 Picture Frames

by Jenna Pastuszek

During this season of Thanksgiving and gratitude, I’ve been thinking a lot about frames. Frames being the vessels in which we contain and display something worth sharing.

And I’ve been asking myself, “If you had to put 2020 in a frame, what would it look like?”

On the one hand, I could frame 2020 as a complete dumpster fire. A waste of time, a lost opportunity, a completely devastating, tremendously difficult, and emotionally exhausting period of life.

I could choose to put a frame around my stalled career, the loss of big professional opportunities, the many missed industry connections, now worthless investments, the vanished income, and decreased sources of financial stability.

I could put a frame around my crushed dreams, dead pursuits, a frequently doubted sense of purpose, the new worry lines (wrinkles) on my face, age in my bones, extra love in my love handles, and an anxiety-induced rise in blood pressure.

I could put a frame around the loved ones lost, the lifestyle changes, the (permanent? temporary?) closing of our Brooklyn chapter.

I could frame all of that, display it on the wall, and be sadly and angrily reminded of its existence whenever I walk by.

OR

I could choose to put a frame around learning to appreciate a slower pace of life- enjoying quiet morning walks, savoring a cup of hot coffee, marveling at the colors of the sunset, crawling into bed with a good book, singing just because, and enjoying the full body sensation of laughing- really laughing at something hilarious.

I could put a frame around the strengthened connections, rekindled, and deepened relationships with friends, friends who now feel like family, and family, family who now feel like friends, around the expansive moments of partnership in life and in business and in artistic collaboration, around the new connections made with people around the country and world through the magic of the internet, around the collective growth I’ve witnessed within the artistic communities I’m part of all because modern technology has made it possible for us to remain connected even when we’re apart.

I could put a frame around the new creations, exciting pivots, the many, many, many “Yes AND” moments (even the failed ones), around identifying new definitions of “success”, and the countless unexpected moments of determination, gratitude, joy, relief, and celebration that have occurred over the past nine months.

What’s going in your 2020 frame?