Destruction Clouds 2020

Last year was a big year for everyone, leaving changes, both permanent and temporary, in its wake. From last March’s COVID-19 outbreak changing everything in the world to the dying environment to the many deaths of people from all over, 2020 was a year for the worse.

SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19.The Corona Virus. The disease that rocked the world off its axis went by many names, but everyone recognized it sheerly from the destruction it created. From closed businesses to virtual schools and from mask mandates to COVID deaths, COVID-19 threw a curveball so fast, no one was ready for it.

To many people, it wasn’t just a lack of sleep or missed school semester, it was a loss of loved ones, ranging from popular celebrities to personal family members.

In January, it was Kobe Bryant. August, Chadwick Boseman. September, Ruth Badder Ginsburg. October, Sean Connery. November, Alex Trebek. These are only a sliver of people compared to the friends, to the family, to the millions of people the world has lost, marking 2020 as the year everyone will rue and remember.

While COVID-19 took up the majority of space of last year’s daily news, other events happened that were just as serious, the threat to the environment. Just in August, over 2.2 million acres of land burned in California according to Cal Fire.

The fires were so hot and bright, people in Wisconsin could see them too. “The winds at cloud level across the northern part of the United States will be from west to east,” nbc15 states about the abnormal orange sun. “These strong winds will bring some of the smoke that’s filling the air to the Midwest over the next couple of days.” California was on fire. The sunshine state burned while the country watched, just adding to the destruction last year carried.

A lot happened in 2020 that affected the world with changes that don’t directly affect Hartford, but even then, students today are feeling last year’s effects. Wearing masks, class time shifts, limited resources, no in-person club meetings, athletic changes, quarantines, virtual school, no school-sponsored activities, 2020 changed Hartford Union High school in ways that impact all students.

From a high school stand point, incoming freshmen won’t know their first high school dance while seniors will graduate without a senior classic. Juniors won’t understand the upperclassman privileges while sophomores will spend yet another year trying to adjust to high school life. For an important time in a student’s life, 2020 did them no favors and pushed everyone back one more step in life.

Emotionally, students, and people in general, have been pushed to the limit. Staying in the same place for days on end without any in-person contact leads to depression and unhealthy habits, like 2020 screwed with everyone’s life in one way or another.

Now, however, it’s 2021 where all people can hope for now is to deal with the cards they were dealt and persevere on with their lives. While it’s good to look back in time, 2020 was a year better left in the past.