By Anton Dedvukaj
We’re in the homestretch, folks. It’s November. We’ve made it through eight months of quarantine, a very hectic election year, and countless other things that have popped up over the course of the past 11 months. The year that everybody seems ready to declare the worst year in quite some time is nearly over.
While it may seem like the COVID-19 pandemic was the only thing that happened all year, let’s not forget that many people were ready to call 2020 a dumpster fire weeks before the virus closed down school for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.
Back in January, when the virus suddenly appeared, the eyes of many were already fixated on things like the Australian wildfires or the US-Iran conflict that many nicknamed “World War III.” Then, February happened with the Coronavirus spreading, but with no social distancing or quarantine to speak of quite yet.
Then, March 13 arrived. This is a day that I personally think will end up in the history books. On that day, President Trump declared COVID-19 a national emergency, and the Irvington School District closed down for the next two subsequent school days, March 16 and 17. More and more school closures came and went. Then, with the writing having been on the wall for a while before it became official: school was closed down for the remainder of the school year.
During this time, let’s not forget that there were also the protests sparked by the killings of numerous black citizens at the hands of police officers, as well as the subsequent backlash of protests. And amidst all of this, there was a hectic election season between President Trump and Former Vice President Joe Biden with a result that, despite having been called for Biden, is still being actively disputed by Trump at the moment.
That’s a lot to unpack in just 11 short months. And yet, 2020 just seemed to have more and more up its sleeve with each passing day. As of recently, our ability to even continue the hybrid schedule seems uncertain, with a potential second school closure seemingly imminent at the moment. So, with everything that has happened and that is still happening , it leaves me with one question: what even was this year?
I bring this up because I remember other years like 2016 being branded as “the worst” and I didn’t really know what to think. But now, with 2020, while I’d struggle to say this is the worst year ever with literally a millennia worth of years to choose from, I do agree with the general consensus that this was not a good year by any stretch. So, where do we go from here?
Well, I don’t really have an answer here. I propose that we try to learn from these experiences and most importantly, learn not to do this again. I feel as though we should try to work against the pandemic and eradicate the possibility of any future quarantines. Other than that, we should mainly try to get through December, and then set our sights on making it so that 2021 doesn’t turn out nearly as bad. And above all, to try to be optimistic about all the years to come.
