Hi 2021!

Hiya, 2021! How are you? Nice and fresh, I hope? Ready to start a fresh new year? I really hope so. After all, 2020 was a bit of a wash. Everyone’s counting on 2021 to be a bit better. Not even a lot better. Just good enough to feel somewhat normal. If 2021 can be a bit more like… I dunno, 2015? That’d be great. Heck, even 2019 or 2018 would be fine.

Either way, it’d be great if 2021 could be a bit less depressing.

Okay, gonna be honest here, talking to a year as if it has any sentience is stupid. Nothing I can really say or do can actually affect anything. 2021 isn’t an intelligent being, and neither was 2020. Dates are just a system of measurement. Otherwise us humans wouldn’t really have a way to tell the seasons and stuff. All human inventions.

That being said, the events that happened in the time period we called 2020 weren’t… the best. We had a ton of shit happening, with a new event every month. Heck, for a brief period, there were worries of fricking murder hornet swarms flying around. Really, there’s not enough time in 2021 to properly explain why 2020 seemed so awful.

Although, to be fair, most years have been kinda shitty. 2016 was considered to be really shitty, and not just because of US politics and tons of celebrities dying. Tons of bad shit happens every year. What made 2020 worse was mostly the pandemic. That is really what fucked us over, and part of it was our own arrogance and lack of empathy. Again, those two things already ran rampant around humans, but 2020’s other problems were made far worse by them.

So people are hoping 2021 will be better. There’s already some actual hope to be had. Some of the problems of 2020 will potentially have solutions. After all, we’re already looking at slow roll outs of multiple vaccines for the current pandemic. Something that is, in all honestly, nearly a miracle. Vaccinations are incredibly challenging to make, yet the scientific community managed to knock it out of the park.

Unfortunately, we can’t do much if 2021 decides to be as awful as 2020. While, yes, we can work together to try and lessen human-based catastrophe, the rest of existence might not be as kind. What’s more important is that we at least fucking TRY to be nicer to each other. Because, while yes, the universe can be a massive asshole, we can lessen the pain. You don’t even need to do anything special. Just don’t try and hurt other people, try talking rather than shouting, and treat people how you’d want to be treated. Actually, that’s a pretty big ask for most people. Should probably just dial it back to a basic recommendation to not be a dick.

Anyway, here’s to 2021. Fingers crossed it will be a better year. And, fingers crossed, we’ll also be better to each other. Maybe we can at the very least avoid a repeat of 2020, even if it’s going to start off similarly.

In the mean time, stay inside if you can, keep your masks on and keep safe.