A letter from December 22nd, 2020

Dear FutureMe, It is currently the 22nd of December, 2020. You may recall that around this time of year Americans have heard the phrase, “In these unprecedented times,” about 15 times a week. You may also remember that I have gradually lost more and more faith in the American people every single day since March! This year first started out with some news coverage on Covid-19 in China, and then, unfortunately Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi, and 13 others died in a plane crash. Then Australia caught on fire, then Covid-19 spread internationally, reaching the United States and resulting in a lockdown, not to mention it’s an election year. Also, gender reveal parties are like the main source of wildfires now? Yeah, I guess that’s a thing. Fun fact the spawner of the Great Gender Reveal Party had a child who ended up being non-binary. So, there’s that. Then, we lost beautiful souls such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, (so many more), due to police brutality. Protests broke out, and well, it seems as though a lot of the politicians just, laughed in the faces of black people simply seeking an ounce of justice. I took a lot of time and am still taking time to learn about experiences that have been completely lost on me my entire life, and had to come to the realization that even my dad, a brown man who grew up believing, “white is right,” has had a completely different life than mine. Meanwhile, Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed, sadly. Then Biden and Harris won the election, making Kamala the first female, black, and black female vice president! Pretty neat. It took a loooonnnnggggg time for that to become official, though. You see, Donald told his supporters not to vote by mail, then was shocked when most of the mail-in ballots were for Biden! Classic. Speaking of Biden, I watched him take his Covid-19 vaccine live on TV yesterday. Mom is supposed to take it soon too because she’s a healthcare worker and all that. What else? Ummm, Mac Miller had his last, beautiful album released back in January, and Barack Obama came out with his favorite songs of the year, one song of which was Blue Worlds, so that was very nice! Basically, this year was tough for every single person. I find myself complaining about how stressful and stupid everything is, but when that happens I have to take a step back and think. I have had a very, very easy year. When you think about the struggles and mountains other people have to climb every single day of their lives just to simply survive even before Covid, when you think about all of the different family situations people had to deal with during the lockdown, when you think about any situation that’s worse than yours, it’s hard to still feel like everything goes wrong for you. I hope you continue to put things into perspective because this year, above all else, I have learned that I have it easy, I have privileges other people desire, and I have to always be aware of that and use that to help other people. Because otherwise, well you’re kind of a jerk. Anyway, I hope the ice caps aren’t still melting and that you are well! Byeee