78: I lost one thing I loved and gained one thing I love.

It was not easy to start writing about my 2020. Simply because way too many things happened, and I didn’t know where to start. Everything around me changed. At the beginning of 2020, I was working in Japan. By the end, I was spending the holidays in the mountain Pyrenees of France with my soon-to-be husband. I lost one thing I loved and gained one thing I love.

The thing I lost: my job.
The beginning of 2020 was great. I had been working in Japan at a tour company for 6 years. The brand I was in charge of was growing fast, and we all thought it was the year we can celebrate its success. In January, we started to hear about this virus that is spreading from Wuhan, China.
The situation developed fast during February, and by mid-march, airplanes stopped flying, and countries closed their border. Our job became from sending people abroad to bringing back those who are stuck abroad. When I was told to work remotely, I was somewhat happy that I don’t have to endure 1-hour commute every morning. I went to the office to pick up some stuff and had lunch with my teammates. I didn’t know that it would be the last day at the office. We all thought it was just a temporary adjustment, after all, the company survived through 9. 11 and the 4.11 East-Japan earthquake.
By October, the company couldn’t hold anymore and decided to let people go. I was shocked that the senior members who devoted 15 – 20 years were asked to leave. Thankfully, I was given the choice. It was scary to leave at such a time, but if I decide to stay that means another of my dear colleague, who probably has young children to support, has to leave. I truly loved my job, my team, and my colleagues, but I knew what I have to do.

The thing I gained: my husband.
Rumors were going around foreigners in Tokyo that the government is not doing the PCR test properly to keep the numbers low for the Olympics, and it is not easy going to hospitals if you have any symptoms. Someone wrote on Twitter how he had to contact 5 different places to see a doctor. Information was restricted. Thankfully my company allowed me to work from abroad remotely. I decided to go back to my home country and my boyfriend was going to follow me when his paper is ready. But there was a twist. The border got closed while he was preparing his paperwork and all we can do was waiting for the border to open again.
We talked every day at 10 pm. I am so grateful that this pandemic happened after the invention of the smartphone and WhatsApp.
During this time we realized how much we want to be with each other. When it was official that the border of France(he is French) is open, we had to see each other. We took tickets to Paris that very night and got on a plane 4 days later.

When we first met, we both agreed that we don’t want to get married anytime soon. However, spending almost three months apart and living through a pandemic, we learned marriage comes with the great benefits of legal protection. We don’t have to be separated against our will. We can be there for each other during the emergency (hospital kind of).
On the 30th of December, we had an appointment with the city hall of Bordeaux to arrange the marriage and got married a month later. None of my family or friends were able to come to our wedding, but it was still a lovely one and I was just grateful that it was able to happen in the first place.

There is the famous saying from Forest Gump, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” The year 2020 was more like a box of every-flavor jelly beans from Harry Potter. Thankfully, I picked a sweet one.

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