Man, 2020 has been a hard year for everyone. I know I have it so much easier than millions of others, but it’s still been a difficult time. While doing the dishes tonight I reflected on my mental health and realized it’s far worse than I can remember. It’s a compressing feeling not being able to see friends and loved ones. It’s almost impossible to plan anything this year because so much changes so much so quickly. I don’t feel good—my body doesn’t feel great, and it’s because I’ve let slip a lot of my habits.

It’s time to finish out the year strong. It’s dark in the morning and early evening, and that makes it all the more bleak. But it doesn’t matter. It’s cold now, which makes exercising more difficult. It doesn’t matter. We can’t hold our traditional, important celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christmas. It doesn’t matter. We can control much less this year than usual. It doesn’t matter. We can control ourselves. We can get healthy, and we can be happy. We can write handwritten letters (a lost art form) to those loved ones we can’t see over the holidays. We can spend true quality time with the loved ones within our bubble. We can look forward to the arduous political road ahead, and at least be satisfied that we have cleared some significant hurdles. Sure, 2020 might be hard, but what’s the alternative? Give up? It might be easy to relinquish our effort and waste away, but we know in our hearts we won’t. That we’ll get back up. That’s what matters.

This year will not be the end of us. We will rise stronger from it, more resilient, more alive. I believe we can do this, and I believe we will. Our species has never done anything different. It’s who we are. Let’s end 2020 with the same hope we began it with. Let’s live fully and truly, and let’s change the world.