Happy New Year! (well, tomorrow it will be, anyway)
I will admit, writing this letter began as a challenge. Typically, a New Years’ letter written to friends is a pretty easy thing to pull off. “Happy New Year, best of luck in the coming year, all the best on any resolutions you make,” will usually cut it.
But this has not been a typical year.
Many might label 2020 as the worst year ever. Or, at least, as one of the more difficult years in recent memory. The events of 2020 have certainly hit some harder than others, and there are blessings to be counted as well as sympathies and humility to be extended. No need to go into great detail here as it’s all been said and analyzed enough.
The question remains though: how do we all turn our collective sights towards next year, one we all desperately want to swing on an axis of hope beginning tomorrow? 2021 will still hold challenges.
It’s that word, I guess. “Hope.” Hope is something we know that we have, no matter what, and is perhaps exactly what we need to use going forward in order to “drop-kick” 2020 to wherever it belongs.
Backcountry Journeys faced a challenging 2020, as most businesses did. Especially those in the travel industry. After some reflection, it became obvious that because of the challenges we were able to grow. To become better. Being forced into a sticky situation, one where the core of what we do was taken away and there were few, if any, answers, led to real positive growth.
In March, we began to produce webinar features as a way to continue to connect with our guests. To give something that would be of value while we were unable to travel. We developed a unique and interactive approach to our Lightroom & Photoshop courses, making them even more accessible than before. We have started video production and created a YouTube Channel so as to take our photography education and entertainment offerings to a new level. Expect all of these to not only continue once things are “back to normal,” but to expand and develop in 2021, and beyond. This will be part of the legacy of our 2020.
As these letters often do, let’s reminisce for a bit, shall we? And what better way than through the eyes of our trip leaders, as they wrote about highlights from a few of our 2020 trips. Yes, we did run a few trips in 2020, starting in Hawaii, in January.