2020 has been the most consequential and intense year that almost everyone on Earth has experienced in recent memory. Just in America we've experienced the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, police brutality caught on camera and nationwide protests in response, intense wildfires along the West Coast, multiple hurricanes in the East, the deaths of major icons like RBG and Kobe Bryant, a #Me-Too reckoning, the impeachment of a sitting President, and a looming economic depression. It's almost October and we still haven't reached the end of this contentious election which I'm sure will bring new havoc once we get there. For now, during this time of uncertainty, I've stuck (at a distance) to those closest to me, and allowed them to lean on me when need be. These times have given me a sense of mortality I never had before, and forced me to focus on what I really want to do with my life while I'm here. As morbid as it seems, all the death and destruction has made me a more grateful person, and inspired me to get up and get the projects I've wanted to start for ages actually started, as well as finish other ones I've put off for ages. Although there is a lack of friendly social norms we all were once accustomed to, I still haven't forgotten common human decency and in fact these crises have made me more compassionate and understanding for my fellow human beings. I haven't just hunkered down in confinement, but practiced my first amendment right to protest the horrid police brutality, marched proudly for my fellow LGBTQ+ siblings, and done a kind deed when no one was looking just because. Without all that, and a little dark humor to ease the blows this year keeps bringing, I don't think I would've made it.
