Dec 31st, 2019, midnight: I popped champagne with friends, celebrating the end of 2019 and the beginning of what felt like a big milestone - 2020. It was going to be a good year. Work was good, life was good, and there was so much to look forward to. As the night went on, we spoke a bit about a new virus in China but soon went back to partying. Viruses like this had happened before. And while unfortunate, we collectively assumed that this would be similar to the SARS epidemic and wouldn't really impact us (selfish and hard to admit, but true).

January 2020: Fairly uneventful. An impeachment was brewing and I followed it closely but things were still relatively normal. My friends and me were trying to follow all our new year resolutions.

Early February 2020: Harneet had to travel to London for some work and decided to detour to Italy with some of our friends. My sister was visiting Italy too. When they reached Italy, news broke out that this virus called COVID was now spreading in Milan - but hey - my family and friends weren't in Northern Italy - they were in Rome, and this could still be contained.

February end 2020: Our yearly anniversary trip was New Zealand this year. I was looking forward to it. As usual, we had planned minimally for the trip and planned to wing most of it. We started in North Island (gorgeous) and then made our way to South Island (double gorgeous). We were busy enjoying our own little bubble of bliss.

The bubble burst when one afternoon, the messages started coming in. I still remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. It was when we got to our hotel room in Wanaka. I begin getting messages from friends that COVID had now reached Seattle and all of a sudden, it was all real. This virus, that wasn't supposed to be a big deal, had reached our home and was soon turning into a pandemic. Calls from family started coming in and we began contemplating whether we should return home early. New Zealand was still pretty safe but the worry started setting in. A week before our return, offices started shutting down, cities were being locked down, flights were getting cancelled, and we had to start working from home. This smart virus was now touching everyones lives. Life had thrown a pretty powerful curveball at the world.

I returned back terrified of what was ahead. Over the course of the year, I have begun to realize how heavily we rely on our way of life. We float through our lives on a fixed routine that rarely varies, and begin to flail when those unexpected twists happen. We can never anticipate or be prepared for every curveball, but we are quick learners and adapt before we even realize it. I now understand that every moment we live in and have is special, and could be taken away from us or changed in an instant. The next time I have an opportunity to take a walk with a friend, or have a conversation with a barista, or go on a vacation, or eat a meal with a loved one, or visit a movie theater, or pop that new years champagne with friends, I will try to remind myself of this. Life is fickle and could change on you any minute - so love and appreciate every moment of it. Coz you never know when that next curveball will come, where it will come from, and what it will be.

P.S. 2021 is almost here.