Good Riddance 2020 – You Freak!

If the year 2020 was a/an:

  • Headline, then it caught all the wrong attention
  • Concept, it didn’t make sense
  • Website, it wasn’t very user-friendly
  • Ad, no one was sold
  • Call-to-action, it surely was misleading
  • Logo, it wasn’t recognised
  • Packaging, it misrepresented its contents
  • Campaign, it didn’t cross any borders
  • Online purchase, it wasn’t fulfilled
  • App, it crashed

This truly was an epic year, for all the wrong reasons. Even for me – a self-professed homebody and pseudo-introvert – it has been a sobering (errr, maybe not the right word…), perhaps depressing year to be living in.

HNY 2021
Please, don’t jinx it…

From the ever-flexible MCO SOPs to the ever-present MKN SMSes repeating the obvious, there just seem to be a tinge of cluelessness of late on how to eradicate this menace.

Granted, the whole world is struggling – even ‘first-world’ countries – to contain the pandemic. No easy feat indeed, especially with such a ferocious and now mutated virus in a highly social and often incorrigible human populace.

Just like that, we are at year’s end while being at wit’s end for not being able to revert to any sort of normalcy. Talk of pre-Covid times have become reminiscent of an alternate by-gone universe; where handshakes, dining-in, concerts and vacations are the stuff of legends.

Welcoming 2020
Me being ignorant AF!

So, it will still be masks-up and sanitisers-in-pocket well into 2021 from the looks of things, pending of course vaccine efficacy.

Yet even in these unreal times, humanity and humour is not lost. When Twitter asked people to ‘Roast 2020’, there were some very apt responses from major brands.

And for me, a fulltime freelance copywriter along with countless other freelance service providers, gig workers and home-based entrepreneurs – it does seem like an uncertain future.

But we will go into 2021 being cautiously optimistic. If history is any indicator, this war will be won – and we can possibly party into 2022 in style, I’ll still probably chill at home of course.

Yes, a lot can happen between now and then. Who knows? Maybe aliens will land and eradicate every last bit of the virus, and us included.

Till then, let’s just keep doing what we do best – Zoom meetings.

And So It Begins…

2020 has been pretty rough for most, if not all of us.

This is the year that started bright and full of optimism. And before we could seriously hit the gym – in an attempt to absolve past new year resolution failures – the shit hit the fan so hard that we are still gasping for air. Yes, literally gasping for air from under our 3-ply, suspect-quality masks.

We’ve gone from ‘What happened to Wawasan 2020?’ to ‘Why am I washing my hands every 20 minutes?’. Not to mention our political drama that on its own would have taken the cake on being a disappointing year. And then to cap it all off, a certain Merseyside club won the English league.  What’s next, Kaijus lurking beneath the seabeds to unleash destruction on humanity? It’s only August so let’s see what else goes loco. Surprise me!

Bring It On

And you know what the funny thing is? This is the year that I had planned to finally re-commit myself as a full time freelance copywriter and marketing consultant. Meaning opting out of an almost full time gig that left virtually no room for me to take on any other client. It was a good, stable, well-paying gig but of late just became too one dimensional and mundane. It’s also part of the reason why this blog has been dormant for quite a few years now. And for someone who is a copywriter by profession, it’s seriously counter-productive and soul-killing when I’m not writing.

Okay, rant over.

So here I am at the dawn of a new beginning in a year that never really got started. Yes, I did let go of that gig… a necessary step for the greater good of my mental health. Despite my sensible self constantly reminding me not to rock the boat this year, I figured let’s get a guitar on board and rock it harder.

It feels like I am back at square one, just like when I quit my last ‘job’ 9 years ago to attempt my first foray into freelancing. Not the best of times to do this. But is there ever a good time to put yourself in a uncomfortable, uncertain position? Didn’t think so.

Let the chips fall wherever they may.

So yes, I am back and ready for all marketing-related enquiries – unless the Kaijus get to me first.