GOODBYE 2019, HELLO 2020!

banner image courtesy of blende12 from Pixabay

Here’s the Fox in a Box Chicago guide to ushering in the new year...and new decade

Happy New Year, 202...wait, scratch that.

Sure, 2020 is a new year.

But it’s also the start of a new decade, the third one of the 21st century.

With so many tumultuous events having rocked the outgoing decade, not to mention the far too many exits from the world stage - including leading lights like George Bush, Sr, Nelson Mandela and Doris Day - this is an opportune moment to reflect on the decade gone by and prepare for the one ahead.

The decade that passed us by…

The decade whose last few moments are slipping by even as I write this was marked by great upheaval.

We worked hard (some may still be working at it) to overcome the aftermath of the Great Recession of the previous decade.

Led by new-age streaming websites like Twitch, video game live streaming became a thing from around the middle of the decade.

And, regardless of the surge in popularity of Fortnite, Minecraft remained the top video game of all time.

At the workplace, freelance work and the gig economy became increasingly important.

And the one that lies ahead…

• What lies ahead of us in the new decade?

• Will it be one where we can all breathe a little freer and easier?

• What should we look forward to and how should we best start off the 2020’s?

Here’s how we see it.

We will find out whether Mars can sustain human life

The 2020’s may very well be the decade when we definitively answer the question of whether the Martians are all alive and kicking and ready to take over Earth.

courtesy of kalhh from Pixabay

More seriously, the NASA Mars 2020 mission may answer the question of whether human beings can live on Mars.

It will look for signs of past life on Mars and also collect and store samples of rock and soil from that planet.

You can tune in to the live stream of the spacecraft being assembled and prepared for the mission, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.

Going on an epic train journey

We do train rides all the time, right?

Going home during college break, going to see grandma and grandpa at their place in the country.

But this, my friend, is like nothing you’ve ever done.

I’m talking of the Trans-Siberian Railway that connects Moscow with Vladivostok in Russia’s far east.

The entire train journey takes almost an entire week and is over 5000 miles through some of the planet’s most beautiful, harsh and loneliest landscapes.

The ‘journey of a lifetime’ is how Lonely Planet describes this particular train journey..

Follow your passion

Warren Buffett said that taking up jobs to fatten your resume, so that one day you can do what you really love is like saving up sex for old age. It doesn’t make sense.

Now, of course, there are caveats.

A lot of us have bills to pay and people to support; we can’t just forget about all of that and go off on some dream project.

However, you can start to take baby steps towards following your passion, while still doing whatever you need to to pay the bills.

Look at Peter Popluhár. He has a degree in finance with specialization in investments and capital markets, and for some time he did have a career in high finance.

Nowadays however, he makes YouTube videos on everything from ‘The Worst Things About Glasses’ to a series based on his travels to less popular countries in Africa.

Let 2020 be the year in which you take the first step towards following your passion.

Reconnect with your family

With the tumult of the 2010’s and a plethora of digital distractions around, competing to trap our attention, a lot of us seem to have built up silos around ourselves, snapping off our connections with the near and dear ones.

Will 2020 be the year to reverse course and get back in touch with each other?

Go out into the real world with real people to do real things?

Experience suggests that you won’t regret it. Family time can be fun.

Now, I can’t suggest ideas for everyone, but if you’re looking for family activities in Chicago, may I suggest checking out Chicago’s most popular escape room?