People, including myself at times, have expressed the sentiment, “this year sucks.”

Yes, 2020 has been a hard year for millions of people around the globe. That’s a pandemic for you—they come every 50-200 years and they mess everything up. Lucky for us, this one isn’t that bad, relatively.

And although we haven’t enjoyed the same quality of life this calendar year, it has shown us what is truly important. Community and social connection, a balance between purpose and pure fun for fun’s sake... these things have not always been available to us this year.

So when we do beat this, and we will, let’s remember these lessons. Covid is now with us on this planet, for many years to come. We must accept that reality, but also be grateful for the relative luxury of life we enjoy normally, in an otherwise precarious world.

The year of 2020 will be historic, one for the pundits to rehash for decades to come. Let it also make the turning point in our species’ development into a more benevolent civilization, a more loving race.