Letter #1
Dear 2020,
I could start this letter all cliché and shit by telling you, you have absolutely sucked!!
I could tell you all the reasons I hate you and all that you made me lose. I mean, it would be a lot to recount…should I start with the wildfires, the political unrest, or should I begin with the most pressing and unprecedented … global pandemic? Should I badger you with how you took so many significant lives away? The turmoil that ensued after people were asked to simply wear masks? Or the lockdown which spiked unemployment rates and magically made every working parent a teacher? How you sucked the life out of weddings, graduations, and my anticipated vacation?
I could say all of the above (and it would all be true), but I won’t. I won’t! Instead, I will not remind you of how much you made me lose but instead of all the things you allowed me to gain.
First and foremost, you allowed me more time with my children. So much time in fact that I may have wanted to strangle myself a few times (especially with the added bonus of homeschooling). But really, I will never forget the indoor movie theatre we created or the picnic in the back of our car, or our random community walks that allowed us to see a growing geese family at our local pond. None of this time was wasted.
I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am for you allowing me to reconnect with friends and co-workers and value them in ways I was taking for granted. From Zoom birthdays and happy hours, drive-by celebrations, virtual gym classes, and everything in between. For allowing me the clarity to appreciate the small, the mundane, and the large things in life, like having a job, a roof over my head, a viral dance video, or stability in knowing that I would not be in financial ruin after this year.
Thank you for the hope in humanity I felt every time I saw a chalked-up street with messages for the mail carrier and the endless rainbows on windows in my neighborhood. Thank you for the leadership of those who finally dared to stand up for the rights of the marginalized in this country and across the world. For the hope and strength you gave every single essential worker whilst they put their own lives at risk because they knew (know) they are helping the greater good.
Thank you for the banging pots, the feel-good news, the online proms, the massive outpouring of grace, help, and community refrigerators. Thank you for the innovation you sparked however small or large from young kids making plastic curtains to hug grandparents, companies revamping their business models, to scientists working to create a vaccine for a virus they did not yet fully understand. For allowing me to see the power of women (women like me) accepting one of the highest offices in the nation with my daughter by my side.
And lastly, thank you 2020 for allowing me to hear myself think. For really giving me what I needed this year from the most unexpected places and people nonetheless, to focus on the things that matter most and place energy on the people who matter most in my life. Therefore, unlike many others, I won’t say I hate you 2020! To you, I just simply say…thank you…for truly giving me my own 20/20 vision. Thank you for literally and figuratively allowing me to survive you.
Sincerely,
A grateful 2020er (aka Yari)
P.S. You still have an awful reputation, but can you help by clarifying: where the hell did all the toilet paper go all those months?
Yari is an elementary school bilingual teacher and a devoted mother of two.
