How Has Your 2020 Been? Tell Us All About it On #BN2020Epilogues

2020 has been that year! Pheeew. Ever been in deep s**t and then you tell God, “If you just let me out of this, I’ll (insert any promise)?” Well, that’s how 2020 has been for a lot of us. In Agu’s voice, we saw terrible things. 

At the beginning of this year, we had dreams, made resolutions, swore by the gods that we were going to do this and that, and had very high expectations of what the year was going to offer us. But by the middle of the year, it was clear that the major 2020 goal was to remain alive and healthy.

2020 has been turbulent for the world: Even with millions of lives lost, COVID-19 is still kicking our asses; Kobe and Gina Bryant died in a helicopter crash; the Beirut explosion killed over 200 people, over 33 people and millions of animals died in the Australia fire; Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down from their royal duties; George Floyd‘s murder sparked a massive #BlackLivesMatter protest in many parts of the world; women in Namibia protested against gender-based violence with the #ShutItAllDown hashtag; the #CongoisBleeding hashtags gave us a glimpse of the abuses the Congolese people – and their natural resources- are being subjected to; our Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman died of cancer.

For us, in Nigeria, 2020 has been tough, sad, hilarious, irritating… just name it. COVID-19 has killed 3,354 Nigerians. Inflation is killing us – we’re at risk of not cooking our Christmas rice with onions or tomato paste. Even garri, that we all used to yab, is now rubbing shoulders with cornflakes. The unemployment rate in Nigeria is almost 30% and the acting MD of NDDC fainted while being interrogated by the lawmakers. Did we fail to mention that Lagosians had to use their Legedese Benz because Governor Sanwo-Olu banned Okada and tricycle?

For us, the biggest event of 2020 has been the #EndSARS protests. Guys, Nigerian youths turned up. We showed our leaders pepper. We proved that we can press phone, be lazy, and at the same time fight for our rights. For 2 weeks, we fought for a common goal and enjoyed a working system led by the Feminist Coalition until… well, you know the rest. We’ll never forget our brothers and sisters who died for this cause.

Still, 2020 hasn’t been all gloom and horror stories, right? Some people got their dream jobs, Paystack was acquired by Stripe, many people fell in love, people got married immediately the shelter-in-place order was lifted, we had loads of sex and welcomed beautiful kids to the world (we can’t even lie, our current population of 207,978,470 is proof)

How can we forget the Lockdown BBNaija housemates who grabbed our attention for 3 solid months? And all the musicians who dropped their albums this year. Even Wizkid eventually pitied us after… how long?

We know this year has been long long and you probably can’t wait to see the end of it, but first, you’ve got to tell us all that has happened to you this year. Did you lose your job? Got a new job? Find love – how many times now? Did you shoot your shot and get curved? Did you get married or have kids? Embraced your sexuality? Did you get that contract or expand your business? If you can turn back the hands of time, what would you change? What’s going through your mind right now?

Tell us about your happy moments, your I cannot coman goan die moments, the stupid and smart things you did, those times you danced for joy, and those days you locked yourself in your room and cried. We want to know it all.

Send your #BN2020Epilogues stories to features(at)bellanaija(dot)com with the subject: 2020 Epilogues. Feel free to send us your photos too. Submissions are open until the 20th of December, 2020.

Not sure of what to write? You can read our old entries for inspiration.