2020 WAS NOT A FUN YEAR.

I don’t think anyone would disagree with that statement. From beginning to the end of the year, we have gone through so much. I don’t know about you, but for me personally, I learned so much this past year that I will carry on throughout the rest of my life.

When I look back at 2020, my first early thought was of one of my idols, Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash. Then the coronavirus came around and kind of ruined everyone’s year. But there is a way to be reflective about what you learned this year. For example, go back and think about what the moments were this year that you felt you changed from January 2020 to now.


From my personal experience, I learned around May and June that I wasn’t myself, and I needed to find myself again. I was down in the dumps and literally hated everything I usually love to do. One of the many ways I was able to fi nd myself was to be active again and do workouts. Coming from a multi-sport high school life, I had lost my love for anything activity-wise once I went into college.

Coming from a currently 18-year-old, one of the issues I had a lot of this year was finally becoming an adult. Normally, by the time you’re in college, you would be an adult, but because of my late birthday in December it didn’t happen when I was in first year.

Adulting is weird. I had to finally feed myself and be able to cook (which I don’t do much of but it’s one of my New Year’s resolutions). I’ve had to learn how to clean up after myself and just generally how to be a regular adult. While I’ll miss my kid days, it’s time to grow up — as they say. Some young adults can agree with me, because surely all we want to do is party and have fun, but there are times in your life where you just need to grow up and get to business.

But how do we move forward from 2020 to now 2021? Well, we should be moving forward by putting ideas to the table and get involved to help our community. Once the COVID-19 restrictions are loosened, you could be a local coach for a local sports team in your community, volunteer where it’s needed, and help out the next generation, or you can go to town hall and public feedback events and let your politicians, people who can make change, know what you want for your community.

While 2020 felt way longer than a year, 2021 will still be challenging. We will have seen the worst economic deficit since the Great Depression. We will still be coping with the worst health crisis since the Spanish Flu and dealing with a world that needs change and equality for everyone.

You think that 2020 was the most challenging year yet, but it could also be 2021 as well. We just need to give hope and work harder than ever to tackle these challenges ahead for the next year. But, boy oh boy, 2020 wasn’t a good year. So, I’m glad we are finally heading into 2021.