end of the year musings

2023 was a year

Yes, 2023 was a year.

Allow me to quote Selma Diamond from Night Court: “I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me.”

I really don’t have more to add than that. I am not an overly reflective type, except when I randomly want to be, and that time is not now.

I reserve the right to edit this post later, though.

Inevitable “Goodbye and good riddance to 2020 aka The Year of the Plague” post

I never wondered what it would be like to live through a global pandemic and now that I am living in the midst of one, I can say that I was right to never wonder about it. I mean, it could have been worse than it is–here we are less than a year* (!) in and already multiple vaccines are being distributed, promising an eventual return to something that might resemble what we used to consider normal.

With that as a frame of reference, I suppose we can be grateful for the following in terms of how things went.

How the COVID-19 Pandemic Could Have Been Worse: A List

  • The virus could have been much deadlier. Even a fatality rate of 5% would have wreaked havoc across the world (that would equal around 16.5 million dead in the U.S.).
  • Trump could have been President of the entire planet instead of just the United States
  • It could have been even more easily contagious. You think getting people to wear masks was challenging? Imagine if people had to completely isolate to prevent the spread. On second thought, don’t imagine it. You may never sleep again. 😛
  • Transmission by murder hornet (credit to Tick for this one)
  • Vaccine-proof
  • Rewires brain to accept all conspiracy theories
  • Causes a really itchy rash in the worst possible spots

Anyway, it looks like here in BC the vaccine rollout is expected to take until Fall 2021, so roughly 9-10 months. This means that all the measures currently in place will likely remain in place for most of the upcoming year. It sucks, but I’m sure it will build character or something. Here’s to some kind of normalish existence returning before we bring on 2022.

* Never has a year felt so paradoxically long, where days and weeks felt like they stretched on forever, and yet also felt to have gone by in a blur