2020 was a long year for many and couldn’t seem to go by quick enough; now that it is over, it feels as if the time flew by. A pandemic spread drastically all over the U.S. (and the world) and led to many things shutting down. We are, sadly, going into the new year with a lot of the same chaos. Places such as schools, hair salons, restaurants, and anything public were no longer available.

This has been a struggle for many now having to learn virtually and even changing the platforms we work on. 2020 was a very hard year for me personally because I felt that my senior year was ripped away from me; this was supposed to be a year of making many new memories and strongly gripping onto the child that is still within us. Instead of being able to see friends at school, attend dances, and live our everyday lives, we are now stuck at home staring at a screen for hours on end.

Although this year has been very long, it will make each of us hopeful coming into the new year that it can only go uphill from here. This year had a lot of negatives, but it also gave us a deep realization that life may not always go as planned, but we have to remain grateful and understand that better times are coming. 2020 gave us the opportunity to get closer to our families, find new hobbies, and learn to be okay with being alone sometimes.  Even though 2020 was an extremely hard year, there are many that had good experiences. Robbi Caudle gave insight on her 2020 by stating, “My 2020 was bad and good, I experienced more in a year than I would normally! I met more people and I got closer to many.”

This year was another year of growth and learning for all of us, regardless of how good or bad it was. Another student, Erik Blanco, responded by saying, “2020 was full of ups and downs, but ultimately I am hopeful for the new year and will remain positive.” Now that the year is over, we can put our feelings about this year aside and put our energy into making 2021 a much happier year. 2020 may have been a very difficult year for many, but we learned a lot of lessons and became much more excited and hopeful for the future and good things to come!