22)Dear 2020 by Tim Graf

 Dear 2020,

Where do I even start with you? 2020 has been a year and a half. It's been a long year is what I'm trying to say.

Now, I don't want to prejudge things. As I write this, the year is not technically over. So maybe New Year's Eve in the Howland and Baker Islands* will be amazing af and totally redeem everything that came before it, but that seems doubtful. And to be fair, statistically speaking, somebody somewhere must have had a good time, right? I do know two couples that got married this year, so that's gotta be good for at least one spouse per couple.

This year saw a novel coronavirus that killed a bunch of (mostly old) people, and forced the rest of us to stay home and do nothing.  We totally tried seeing what would happen if all our young and healthy people went about their daily lives pretending everything was normal, and it . . . super did not go well. Hospitals filled up. It got rough out there in those streets. Sometimes we like to act like it don't really be like that, but it do.

I guess some things never change though. Like, my computer keeps asking me if I want to let Skype update its software, and I keep saying yes. Despite the fact that Skype already works. (At least, I assume it works. Does anyone still use Skype anymore in the age of Zoom and FaceTime? Probably, right? I don't know.

Aside from COVID-19, which is to say, aside from most things, I guess the year was mostly normal though?  Hard to say to be honest.  There was this one weird time in the fall where every sport seemed to be happening at once.  (Three teams from Tampa and Miami, Florida and two from Los Angeles, California competed for titles, while the other 48 states pretended to stay home but snuck out to see their friends.)  Somebody started a trend of rewriting modern pop songs to sound medieval. Bardcore, they call it. And we voted out Donald Trump. Some other stuff happened too, probably. I didn't do any research for this note.**

I pray that 2021 ushers in peace, love, and an army of ice cream trucks bringing COVID medicine to all the good little boys and girls who need a shot in the arm. The Lord knows I need one.

Sincerely,
Tim

*the uninhabited wildlife refuges which occupy the latest, westernmost time zone in the world, i.e., the last place to enter 2021.
** Not true. I researched the previous footnote. But I'm not here to let facts get in the way of a good story.

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Tim Graf is a serial procrastinator and human. He does not enjoy law school but does enjoy Tuvan throat-singing, trying new foods, and complicated board games. He sometimes enjoys hypotheticals, but it really depends on the situation.