This morning I woke up in my old apartment, located in downtown Cambridge, MA. The apartment is quiet and empty. Looking around my room, it is as if the pandemic never really happened. There are sticky notes with my to-do list on my mirror. Meetings that never happened, work that was canceled, and a grocery list long overdue. My stand table has an unfinished novel that I had started, a glass of aged water, and tickets to the Peabody museum for March 19th.

For those of us who have not acknowledged the date for the past couple weeks, it is time we look alive. Classes may be done, deadlines over, but New Year’s is fast approaching. For some, 2019 has been a whirlwind of ups and downs. There were moments where we never thought we would make it to see 2020. There are also moments where we wish the year would never end. A few of us are leaving some extremely important people behind in 2019, and some of us are looking forward to welcoming new blessings in 2020. Whether we think the year was a bust or not, one thing is for certain, 2020 is just days away. With a new year, comes new goals and commitments. Last year, I made a promise to myself to make it a “selfish” 2019. I can proudly say I did just that. 

One of the best lines on the “impeachment inquiry” this writer heard, was played on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal program. The caller said, in effect, if this was the best the Democrats had to offer, he would not go fishing with them because they didn’t know how to catch fish.

Furious Hours by Casey Cep