The year hasn’t been all bad for us. But I’m definitely ready for it to go away.

I know that things aren’t going to magically be better starting Friday. The loss many of us have experienced this year isn’t something we can just undo. 2021 isn’t going to bring back the loved ones we lost, it isn’t going to magically return everyone’s employment, or make gatherings okay again and masks obsolete, but I do think it will bring us some semblance of hope. Just a smidge. A taste. An amuse-bouche, if you will.

I’m worried the vaccine rollout (no matter how achingly slow it is, atm) will cause people to slack up on their diligence. Many people really aren’t taking this very seriously anyway. They’re fatigued of the new normal. They think wearing their mask is enough.(don’t get me wrong, please wear your mask! but it’s only 70% effective at keeping you safe) They don’t wanna live in isolation even if the temporary change is better for their neighbors. They wear their masks and move about the cabin like they are 100% protected.

I lost 2 friends who were healthy, with no underlying conditions, in their 30s, mask-compliant at all times, but they had to work in the service industry and in education. Where they had to depend on others to be compliant. So when I hear of people who do have underlying issues moving about the cabin as if this is a normal year, it really frustrates me. Our country has failed us. Our government has failed us. And now our fellow citizens are failing us.

But still I hope.

I am thrilled for my healthcare friends who have gotten the vaccine and am so happy to hear some of my educator friends are getting them now, too! I am looking forward to the day when we can all receive the vaccine…and then maybe, just maybe, life in 2021 will start to return to a recognizable normal. Not this new normal we are currently living in. I’m grateful for my bubble and my safety net and my ability to work from home and adapt my normally “outgoing” lifestyle to a more subdued life at home. It’s worth it to keep my family and friends safe. I miss going out, but hell, my bank account is proud of my staying in. My kids know the importance of isolating as much as possible. They’ve adapted well, even if they are a little lonely. It’s a temporary lonely, one that will be over soon, if we can just hang in there.

I still have hope.

I do hope that by Fall of 2021 we will be mostly vaccinated. I hope that people who are refusing the vaccination for reasons that make zero sense, will follow the science behind the development of the vaccines. I hope that the Crybaby-in-Chief will sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up soon. January 20, 2021 soon. 21 days soon.

I hope all the idiots crying about violations of their “freedoms” because of mask wearing will eventually get the help they need to overcome the 4 years of gaslighting that our country has endured. I hope that Georgia turns full blue. I hope that even though Biden wasn’t my first, second, or third choice, that he and Kamala Harris will succeed in undoing much of the harm the great orange one has caused. I hope we can come together to discuss our differences (not including racism. Fuck off with that. That’s not a difference in opinion, that’s a difference in morality). I hope with all hope that Mitch McConnell retires. (ok, that’s more of a giant pie-in-the-sky dream, but maybe when he becomes MINORITY leader McConnell, he’ll stop being such a roadblock)

So yeah, I have hope. But I don’t have ANY expectations. 2020 taught me a hard lesson on that one.

Cheers my friends. Raise a glass of your favorite drink (non-alcoholic is perfectly acceptable) and let’s toast to hope in 2021. I’ll see you on Inauguration Day.

Love,
Melf