What a year it has been! Full of paranoia, a pandemic, and political distress, but there is time to salvage the fresh start before us with a few off the record observations from this pandemic year.

As always, it is that time when we reflect on the year past:  mistakes made, milestones celebrated, possibilities for the future.

It is the time of year when we ponder how we could do things differently, vow not to repeat the same missteps, and strive to be better people.

This time around, just to keep things interesting, I am including some Off the Record Observations we can all relate to as 2020 comes to a close.

An Unforgiving Year

It has been a relentless, unforgiving year in which we have had to reinvent just about everything in our lives. And it has been exhausting. We find ourselves spent.

Yet while our politics and policies may still differ in this New Year, we can all agree that we are ready to say good-bye, good riddance to a tiresome year that kept knocking us down when we were already down.

Still, what did we do? That’s right. Got right back up swinging, working our way toward a different outcome, one which includes a vaccine…and hope.

So, let’s look for the silver lining. I am an optimist. I enjoy searching for the good – and the ironic – in day-to-day life. Here is a subjective list of Off the Record Observations discerned through my impressionable nature since March 13, 2020.

Off the Record Observations

1. No matter how bored and unkept one might be feeling, it is never a good idea to cut one’s own hair, especially unsupervised. Add a glass of wine to the mix, and it becomes a horrible idea.
2. Touching up one’s roots, however, is acceptable and can be done independently, with or without said glass of wine. (Do not worry Salon A – I will always be faithful to you!)
3. Birthdays, especially 21^st birthdays, can be celebrated during quarantine in quite spectacular fashion.
4. When confined to the house, the world-at-large can be creative and ingenious. And we like to share our bravado (think TikTok and YouTube) repeatedly.
5. Everyone looks the same in a mask, sort of…Unrecognizable at the very least so every day is a Masquerade.
6. Baking banana bread never gets old but bananas do, thus the abundance of banana bread baking.
7. The great outdoors has never been more therapeutic. Aww, thank you, Mother Nature, for the change of seasons and the eternal break from monotony.
8. When the ban is momentarily lifted, the feeling of confinement is difficult to shake. For instance, forgotten names and social skills temporarily lost. It is even challenging to carry on a face-to-face conversation! Can you say, “awkward?”
9. The media has succeeded in making us afraid, but the every-changing story is not always factual. Fact check if you can.
10. Grandparents like to sneak out of their homes, constantly. Polite reminders to shelter-in-place for their own good are necessary.
11. Summer never felt so good. For a few months, we were able to forget about the pandemic and live a relatively normal life.
12. Holidays never felt so lonely, but we got by with Zoom calls and drive-byes. From Easter to Christmas, we managed.
13. There is no reason to wear a watch. Time stands still so it just doesn’t matter.
14. No amount of wine makes the pandemic go away, but it sure was fun trying!
15. There is no shame in wearing pajama pants in public – nobody cares, no one can tell the difference, and people have been doing it long before Covid-19
16. We are a resilient society. This too shall pass, and we will be stronger and hopefully more unified for having endured it together.

So, begone, 2020, the year we could not get quite right, and let us start fresh. As we eagerly wait a new beginning, remember to be kind as we move forward. It will mean so much in the coming weeks…Happy New Year!

Remember way back when, all the way back to March 13, 2020, when this whole calamity started? Take a peak at what Scout wrote a mere nine months ago when we did not imagine the pandemic could ever last this long: Making Sense of the New Normal in a Time of Uncertainty – scribingwithscout