{"id":13423,"date":"2021-02-08T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T10:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/index.php\/spu-mourns-passing-of-mr-wolsak-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-02-08T12:03:35","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T10:03:35","slug":"2020-was-a-mess-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/index.php\/2020-was-a-mess-but\/","title":{"rendered":"2020 was a mess but&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The best stories in life are like a string of pearls. For each life event the story is polished and lovely to behold.<\/p>\n<p>However, it is the string of events carefully joined together that gives the whole story meaning and purpose. When apart, the pearls are lovely, but threaded together they become more.<\/p>\n<p>This is how we look back at 2020. COVID-19 is merely a pearl scattered from others that may have bought about with it other pearls. But when these are polished and are strung together, they embellish 2020.<\/p>\n<p>2020 was a mess. We were challenged, life had to change. What we had planned for the year had to change.<\/p>\n<p>In this piece we admit to 2020 being a difficult year but even with this, we took something away from it.<\/p>\n<p>We challenged the SPU community to follow suit and confess to 2020 being a mess but instead of focusing on the negative, forced them to find one or two positives that they closed off the year 2020 with by asking them to finish off the sentence <strong>&#8220;Twenty-twenty was a mess but&#8230;&#8221;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is what they had to say:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13564\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2020-was-a-mess-but-2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1654\" height=\"974\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2020-was-a-mess-but-2-1.jpg 1654w, https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2020-was-a-mess-but-2-1-300x177.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2020-was-a-mess-but-2-1-1024x603.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2020-was-a-mess-but-2-1-768x452.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2020-was-a-mess-but-2-1-1536x905.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2020-was-a-mess-but-2-1-360x212.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1654px) 100vw, 1654px\" \/>It is evident from these quotes that 2020 has meaning and purpose when the adverse is strung with the favourable because apart these would have no meaning and purpose.<\/p>\n<p>Threaded together, we take with it a story never to be forgotten and will forever stand out as the best story of our lives.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The best stories in life are like a string of pearls. For each life event the story is polished and lovely to behold. However, it is the string of events carefully joined together that gives the whole story meaning and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/index.php\/2020-was-a-mess-but\/\" class=\"read-more\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,57],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-13423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-spu-student-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>2020 was a mess but... - Sol Plaatje University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We confess that 2020 was a mess. However, instead of focusing on the negative we chose to focus on the positives to close off the year 2020.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/index.php\/2020-was-a-mess-but\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2020 was a mess but... - Sol Plaatje University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We confess that 2020 was a mess. However, instead of focusing on the negative we chose to focus on the positives to close off the year 2020.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/index.php\/2020-was-a-mess-but\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sol Plaatje University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/solplaatjeuniv\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-08T10:00:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-08T10:03:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2020-was-a-mess.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"623\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mosima Mehlape\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@solplaatje\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@solplaatje\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mosima Mehlape\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/index.php\\\/2020-was-a-mess-but\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/index.php\\\/2020-was-a-mess-but\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mosima Mehlape\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/df5eb8a93d73225156fb2ec5c1714f08\"},\"headline\":\"2020 was a mess but&#8230;\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-08T10:00:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-08T10:03:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/index.php\\\/2020-was-a-mess-but\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":243,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/index.php\\\/2020-was-a-mess-but\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/2020-was-a-mess.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\",\"Student news\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-ZA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/index.php\\\/2020-was-a-mess-but\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/index.php\\\/2020-was-a-mess-but\\\/\",\"name\":\"2020 was a mess but... - Sol Plaatje University\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/index.php\\\/2020-was-a-mess-but\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/index.php\\\/2020-was-a-mess-but\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/2020-was-a-mess.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-08T10:00:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-08T10:03:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spu.ac.za\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/df5eb8a93d73225156fb2ec5c1714f08\"},\"description\":\"We confess that 2020 was a mess. 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