Let's Forgive Each Other for 2020

[AdamS]

thank you for the suggestion

[bex]

2020 was sucky, but it did bring me some wonderful things.

2020 was the year I became commissioner of the NSFL (I'm about to hit my one year, which is fucking wild)
It's the year I helped us to become the ISFL. 
It's the year we as a league saw two immensely successful majors expansions. 
It's the year I dove deep into my sim league friendships. 
It's the year where I often felt alone, but didn't have to feel lonely. 
It's the year that I got my fancy new government job with my fancy government email address.
It's the year I found someone wonderful and got to end my long streak of being a single pringle. 
It's the year that I got to meet that person face to face and end the year with them. 
It's the year that I had many mental breakdowns, and many chances to prove to myself that I am resilient and can bounce back. 

And 2021 has a lot to teach us, I'm sure. But I feel hopeful, for myself, for my relationships, for my league.
May it be a brighter and kinder year for us all.

[iseedoug]

Ill bounce off my guy @woelkers, who bounced off my guy @AdamS. 

2020 was a pretty crazy year, and I was extremely fortunate, particularly given the circumstances. 

The year started out with me traveling 6 weeks straight around the U.S. for interviews. This was after applying for over 50 TT jobs in the fall, 12 phone interviews, now funneled down to the campus visit interviews. COVID in the US news started dropping as I was in an airport, drinking a beer at this neat little Heineken pop up bar in the seating area. Once I got back, I got sick, luckily not COVID sick, but some other ailment from my travels. This paired with the COVID concerns, forced me to cancel my last interview at Texas A&M. 

From there it was basically write my dissertation from my apartment and wait to see if anything would hit. It has always seemed that everyone (particularly the internet) is negative about academic job markets, even before COVID. Yet, I somehow ended up with 5 competing TT offers of the 6 places I traveled to. Accepted the job at University of Tennessee Knoxville; moved; bought a house without seeing it in person until the closing. And actually, my first semester, despite COVID craziness, went great. 

I still feel like I don't live in TN, since all I do is stay in my house and go to the uni (and some hiking). Its hard to feel apart of a community when you can't just go to a local bar or restaurant. But the ISFL community is always there!

Some things I hope for 2021:
1. New York Silverbacks get a chip
2. @mabb recreates (I think I have her convinced to recreate with the new sim!)
3. Push out some cool papers
4. My programming class to go smoothly
5. Broncos figure out how to be a winning team again. 

Also, woelkers once you get in that political science PhD program, if you have some similar interests, we should work on a paper together IRL. I work with lots of political scientist. (also why do we have so many law people in this league??)

Go 

[deadlunatic]

Guess I will join in as well.

2020 Good and Bad
Joined this crazy sim life. So far, I love it.
Got a job right as Covid started. Went from intern to Full time in a week.
Covid hit some people I know. Lost a few people, some recovered.
Holidays weren't as cheery as usual, but still managed to see almost everyone
Wife is in between full time jobs, but discovered what she wants to do long term
Grandma passed away

For 2021
I am going to work out more, so far 3 for 3 this week.
Read at 30 minutes a day before bed
Get a couple of certifications in IT
Eat better
Spend more time focusing on the things I can personally control and let the stuff I can't go
Win a freaking chip

That is the start of what I have.

[nunccoepi]

I love this. The supportive community is what makes our league so special. And we all need to reconcile with ourselves and with the rest of our community sometimes, especially when things are hard. So its a great reminder of what this league has been to so many of us and the heights to which we can grow.

Its truly inspiring to read about what everyone overcame this year. But its also humbling to realize that I had it pretty good, all things considered. As many of you know, I'm also a law student. My wife and I live at a nearby university where she works and, for better or for worse, the school was able to stay open and she was able to keep working. I transitioned to online classes (still online until at least the summer semester) and was able to spend more time at home. I reinvested in this league that I love after a bit of time away, and I was even able to complete an internship with the military. Really the hardest part was feeling cooped up and needing a little extra chiropractic work because of the long hours I've had to stay sitting in front of my computer.

But 2021 is going to be a great one! School isn't any easier, but I do love it, and I've got some promising internship/job prospects on the horizon. Most exciting though is we have a baby on the way due at the end of summer. <3

So grateful for yall and I'm sorry to anyone I've wronged in 2020. If you feel like I have please reach out to me so I can make it right with you!

-nunc

[TeyonSchavari]

2020 sucked yo.

We can start with the obvious quarantine, which affected everyone's mental health. For myself in particular, I do enjoy being alone, however need an escape every now and then and not being able to go anywhere really caused me to be more self destructive, and its something I'm still struggling with. Being in HO at the beginning of the year really didn't help either, as it pushed me straight to the brink. Over the summer I also got into a relationship after being single for a couple years, which was good at first as I finally found someone to open up to about my trust issues and all that I had been through in past relationships...only to catch her cheating on me a couple weeks later. That was rough. As well as one of my closest friends moving 15 hours away. I did also have covid symptoms for about a week, but I'm grateful that they were minor compared to how much other people had to overcome when they got it.

Thankfully, leaving HO helped my mental health, and after some time I was able to see my close friends again. It still isn't the same, but it is way better than it was at the beginning of this mess. A silver lining of the quarantine was that it meant that I would stop spending money at the bars and go out to eat less, which has allowed me to save much more money that I would have otherwise and has put me in position to buy a house this year. I'm also much happier in the league as a casual earner and am thankful for how close I've gotten with some of the members of this league. I have hope that 2021 will be lighter and easier to deal with than 2020, and am glad that there are things to look forward to this year. For this year, I want to finally buy that house, build my own PC, try to chase my dream of becoming a streamer, and heck, hopefully this year the softball beer league doesn't get cancelled so I can get our team back together.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Best wishes to everyone on a better 2021!

[JKortesi81]

2020 was something else, for sure.

I know that I was lucky to be deemed "double essential", which means both of my jobs never closed, and I got to keep making money. On top of that, there wasn't anything to do so all I did was pay down my bills a LOT. That felt awesome, and I was in a really good place, even with the lockdown. I zoomed with more people and got pretty good at Fortnite. I watched Wrestlemania with @AdamS . As things started opening up, that's when things went a little south though. I was disc golfing with my friends for the first time in months (NYS closed down disc golf parks even) and on the second hole, i tore my bicep off of my arm. It was my first major injury of my life. Not too bad considering I was two weeks away from turning 36 at the time. But then I found out that my dog, Bayley, needed what's essentially Dog ACL surgery. We were surgery buddies. Just as she was about healed, she tore her other one. Second surgery. On the plus side we just got word on the 4th that she's 100% good in both legs and she's better than ever. The only downside to all of that is the cost of both surgeries essentially negated the progress I made on the debt front. My overall health wasn't as good because I couldn't workout with my arm healing for the last 6 months. My mental health was rocked from my ridiculous love life situation that's just chock full of twists and turns. I lost my grandmother and a very good friend (neither because of covid at least). Oh, also, I got Covid at the end of September.

But, i'm okay.

And i will continue to be okay. Bayley is healed. I'm healed. I overcame Covid. I'm ready to just get back to where i was at a year ago. My friends are getting happier by the day, some of whom truly deserve it.

You're going to be okay too. And if you're not? Well, my discord is JKortesi81#7672. Let's talk.

[woelkers]

NYS closed down disc golf parks even

I'll have you know that my fake dot football team most certainly did not have anything to do with closing down disc golf parks.

[Crodyman]

This thread proves love. I crave this content.

2020 was challenging for me. Someone very close to me passed away from lung cancer at a young age, I was living in my mom's house when she was dumped in February and moved back home with me still there--then COVID hit and we were stuck together for awhile. Obviously I love her, but I was never planning on living with her for any length of time regardless of a pandemic. I started a podcast LLC in my home state of Vermont, but when my unemployment was challenged by the state, I had to rush to get back to work to pay my bills and my productivity has been all but drained.

HOWEVER:
I moved into my own place, which is spacious enough for an office.
My main podcast had over 6000 downloads, which is huge for me.
I've been spending every night with my friends from LA over zoom watching movies and rating them (we've seen over 200 movies together)
I FOUND THE ISFL, and instantly fell in love with the community.
I started going to therapy. I use BetterHelp, and it's been a great experience for me.
I'm back to work where I make pretty good money. Enough to put a little away each week for retirement and investing.

There is a lot of good that happened once I wipe away the muck and debris from what I thought my year was going to be.

I turn 30 years old in May. I have mixed feelings about it. I still feel like the 21 year old college student I was nine years ago. Time is funny like that. In 2021 I hope to move out of my small hometown and set up some roots in LA, where my friends live--I'd be the first in my family to undertake such an adventure, and I'm excited by the prospect.

Thank you all for being a part of my life. I love you guys and am sending well-wished and posi-vibes to you and your families all the way from sleepy Vermont!

[AdamS]

@Crodyman my wife also uses betterhelp

it was an absolute game changer for her


just taking the steps to do that is so huge