If you’re reading this…

 ….congratulations! You made it!

2020 has felt like a test of patience, and although the upcoming year doesn’t look like it’s going to be sunshine and daisies right away, at least we’re moving on from the one that started it all.

The coronavirus ended up being a dark horse of sorts, pushing past every other catastrophe to emerge as the victor. So many protests, marches and fires around the world and at home, but with the virus always looming in the background.

During January, I was back in Riyadh, mourning a vacation I had made the most out of. The weeks had flown by too far for my liking, but the fun had to end at some point. And as I waved my parents goodbye and rolled my suitcase away past the gates at the airport, I’d consoled myself with the thought that I’d be back when the semester ended.

A couple of months later, after we had our college fests and wrote a couple of exams, everything abruptly shut down. At the time, an unexpected break from college life was a small blessing, and we had gone home cheerily. 

Even as the month came to an end, rumors already swirled of there being an extension of the lockdown. We found ourselves still at home the next month as well, and that decision was also welcomed warmly like a lost family member. The number of cases worldwide remained below a million.

Yet, no crystal ball could have predicted that this would be a regular occurrence, that the hospitals would keep filling and filling till they overflowed. 

We’re missing out on our college experiences, but I’m glad my friends and I got at least an entire semester with each other. I feel bad for the freshmen this year, who’ve been thrown into a new era of their lives through Google Meet and Zoom meetings. 

I’ve also not travelled to Riyadh this whole year, which is a first. It’s incredibly disappointing to not be able to go back, but I’m hoping things will clear up again. My friends feel the same way, and we can’t wait to see each other again.

There also has been a baby boom, with a lot of celebrities giving birth. It’s weird. I couldn’t scroll past Instagram without somehow stumbling upon the news of yet another pregnancy.

As every country slowly slips into the beginning of the next 365 days, after losing close to two million people to the virus alone, a lot of families are missing members and grieving over their losses. Nearly eighty-three million remain afflicted with the disease. 

Here we are, on the last day of 2020. Let’s hope 2021 treats us better.

P.S- keep scrolling because the next post is veeeery interesting :)