Goodbye 2020, Hello 2021!

2020, what a year. This year definitely made history, not just for me but for the entire world. And in the center of it all was, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 took over 2020. For me, it all started last March. Schools closed down, for a while a lot of people were stuck inside, and they were working from home. I had to stop going to school, which was okay at first but then I started to miss it. It was hard to be stuck in the house all the time, though I tried to keep busy with my writing and art.

One good thing about 2020 was I got a lot of time to work on my writing. I’ve come very far as a writer this year. Since there wasn’t much to do in 2020 I had a lot of down time. I took that time to self reflect and work on things important to me like my writing. I’ve made so much progress this year in my writing. I also hit 100 subscribers on this website which was so incredible! I’m so thankful for that. This blog has given my life more purpose. The fact that I can teach people about disabilities while doing something I love is amazing.

I’ve also published my first fiction story. The story was a concept for a series I came up with back in high school. I kind of took a break from it for a couple years, then I decided to write about it for Pittverse. It took me a while to write the story and it was definitely a challenge. I had to think outside the box for this story. I’m used to writing essays, and obviously blog posts, so it was difficult to suddenly write a fiction story and have to figure out plot points and the right structure for fiction. I was nervous about it coming out but I was so happy when it did. I was also really proud of myself that I stuck with it. You can read it at pittverse.org.

Since not much happened this year, instead of taking a lot of time to look back I decided to look forward. I’m going to talk about my hopes for 2021.

2021 is here, that’s crazy! I hope 2021 is even just a little bit better than 2020 was.

There’s a lot I want to do in 2021. I would love to get back to traveling. I still have a lot of places I would like to visit. I really want to go out west, and my family has actually been talking about going to a national park, which I would love to do. I’ve seen some pictures of one online and the scenery looks gorgeous. My mom and I have looked up handicap accessible national parks and we found some videos about accessibility in some parks, so we know it’s possible for me to go to at least some national parks.

I don’t know if this is going to happen in 2021 because of COVID but another place I want to go is Europe. Everyone from my family has been there at some point in their lives and I would love to go with them one day. I would really like to learn more about different cultures. I would love to maybe take a cruise to different countries and do little day trips to different places.

My dad has been to Europe a lot, and he actually lived in France for a few years. He always tells me stories about his time there, and about when he lived on a little farm in the south of France. His stories make me want to go even more. Paris is one of my top cities I want to visit, especially because that’s the one place in Europe that everyone from my family has been to. I’ve become really interested in it and I just really want to see the city for myself.

Something I am definitely going to do this year, regardless of COVID, is graduate from City Connections. For me, graduating is kind of bitter sweet. I’m going to miss all the people that I’ve met and that helped me over the past three years, but I’m also really excited to see what the next chapter holds. I think it’s going to take me some time to adjust to being more on my own and not in a school setting but I know I can do it.

I just can’t believe I’m graduating after 15 years of being in school. That’s amazing. The one good thing about this pandemic is it has given me a taste of what life after graduation could be like.

I also just turned 21. I’m legal, that’s crazy! I had a great birthday, even with the pandemic! I got to go out to dinner with my family. We went to this restaurant called Breakneck Tavern. I’ve never been there before so I was excited to go out to eat. I was only out to eat once during these pandemic days. My mom was a little nervous about going out because of the pandemic but it ended up being fine, especially because no one else was even seated near us. The food was delicious! I got a southern chicken sandwich. The dinner was so flavorful. Most of my other family members liked their meals as well as I did. That night we had cake and I opened my presents. I got an Apple Watch! I’ve been exploring and playing around with it since I got it. It definitely has tested my fine motor skills, which I think is secretly part of the reason my parents got it for me. But I think the more I play around with it the easier it gets.

2020 was definitely a trying year for everyone but I hope we can look forward into 2021. Unfortunately I don’t think the pandemic is just going to disappear overnight. But we can only hope that going in to 2021 things will be better.

Wishing everyone blessings and good health in 2021!