The Year of COVID-19 and Hope for the Future

*In this post, I discuss COVID-19, murder hornets, the joy that is 2020, and my optimism for the future. *

***Photo by Jon Taylor is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. This content uses referral links. *

Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

I recently became aware that I may have been exposed to COVID-19. Someone in my extended family with whom I had contact tested positive for the virus, so now I am quarantined as I await the results of a recent test.

It has given me some time of quiet isolation to reflect upon this year so far, a year that is just barely more than half over.

It’s strange to contemplate the bizarre turns that have defined the entirety of 2020. Each new day brings something unexpected, from COVID-19, to riots, to murder hornets, to bubonic plague-infested squirrels, 2020 has been a barrel of laughs, the year that keeps on giving.

And, of course, we still have a Presidential election.

As I reflect over this past year, however, it really has not been that bad. I don’t mean to make light of it, of course. For some, this year has been devastating. For my family, like most, it has had its share of hardships.

But, I am nonetheless grateful for some of the good that has come from this year.

The quarantine gave me a lot of time to spend with my family, particularly my children, who have grown at a tremendous rate. And we made the best of it. (See the video here that my daughter made.)

Watch on YouTube

I came into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church after thirteen years of discernment and struggle.

And, I completed my first year of Divinity School, a long-delayed dream, albeit not under the greatest of circumstances. (I never thought that I would be attending online classes at an Ivy League school.)

I am also optimistic about the future of our country. Americans eventually get tired of hating each other, and the conflict and self-destructive behaviors that define all sides of our various political and ideological divides have, I believe, reached the limits of our capacity as Americans.

There is much for which we should be grateful and much to which we have to look forward.

The hell that is this year will eventually pass. I hope we will be stronger because of it.