Don’t expect an instructional blog post below. This is something I recently typed into Google, because, as you can maybe guess, all of my plans totally and utterly fell apart.

I had wanted to share a blog post about my goals for 2020, but I’m glad I procrastinated and never posted them, because due to recent events I’m going to have to rethink them entirely. I made several really ambitious and concrete goals that affected all areas of my life: health, relationships, language study, and finances, to name a few. And I had arranged my milestones and timelines around the two major events that were supposed to happen this year: my weddings.

In case you didn’t know, I got engaged last summer! My fiance and I decided that it would be awesome to have two weddings: one in Korea and one in the States so that we could have both of our families participate and to experience weddings in each culture. We planned our Korean wedding to happen in March and our American wedding to happen in August during my school’s summer vacation (I’m a teacher). And so with these two major events on the calendar, I made sure to design my goals in such a way that they would prepare me for and flow around the two weddings.

Then the corona virus started making headlines. At first, the news of the virus was of course shocking, but life carried on mostly as usual in South Korea, so we too carried on with our wedding planning. But it quickly became an epidemic, and soon after a worldwide pandemic. In a matter of days, it became clear that we had to postpone our wedding. We had invited family and friends from Daegu, the city most affected by the virus, but it was no longer feasible for them to travel. My family in California was also concerned about having to be quarantined for visiting Korea. I was really disappointed that it came to this, but for public safety we ultimately chose to postpone it. The day after making that tough decision, it was confirmed that the delay in the public school calendar (decided by the government to reduce chances of exposure) would effectively eliminate the summer vacation, so our American wedding also went out the window.

So my two big dreams got crushed in less than twenty-four hours, and to make matters worse, my school asked me to self-isolate for having visited Daegu. (I actually visited the day the news broke about the outbreak there. Really terrible timing for a trip!) After having a vacation and a week locked up at home, all of the healthy and productive habits I had been cultivating have completely fallen to the wayside. I no longer see a clear path for my goals now that the timelines for my goals have effectively been erased. I can’t blame the corona virus for my lack of follow through, but the situation certainly hasn’t been helping me keep my motivation up.

I’m still sad, but now that I’m no longer reeling from the sudden loss of the two weddings, it’s time to reevaluate my goals, my habits, and my plans for the year. I’ll have to redo the hard work I did in December to prepare for 2020. But I guess it’ll probably be wise to remember that the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and to give myself a bit more flexibility this time around. I will use the month of March to get myself reorganized and back on the horse. Hopefully, I will be able to share my revised goals for 2020 on this blog soon.

I know that many people are suffering worse consequences due to the corona virus and that having to cancel a wedding is nothing in comparison to losing your health or your life. I try to keep that in mind when I start feeling a little too sorry for myself. I hope everyone is staying safe and cautious during these hectic and uncertain times.

~Veronica