The last vivid memory I have from before quarantine began was a community cookout I went to in early February. It was very far from your average Sunday afternoon, with everyone and their mothers at a park talking, others screaming, children running around, and everyone altogether having a great time. I had never seen so many people in one place before and to this day, I still haven’t. But enough about the people, let’s get a little self-absorbed here. I was pretty well-dressed, well that is, if you ask me, donning a crisp black-and-white striped Adidas shirt, matching Adidas pants, complete with my late white Air Force Ones (may they rest in ashes). Anyone who saw me would think I came to a fashion show or a basketball game, which to say the least, wasn’t too far off. This was due to the fact that the highlight of the day was me and my friends disappearing from the scene to go play basketball at the outdoor court two blocks down, this one game being the most fun I’ve had since. Someday, I hope to have a rematch…because we lost horribly. I don’t want to talk about it.

Now outside the realm of positivity, another very vivid memory I have is waking up on a Saturday morning in December around 12 something P.M. I know this was the time because my dad would’ve been watching football, had it been past 1 PM. But here he was, watching a news report of a city in China named Wuhan with hundreds of millions of people walking around the city wearing masks. I had never seen anything like this before. No one ever believes me when I tell them this story, but I had a strong feeling the plague in Wuhan was bound to reach us someday…and boy was I right. 2 years and a month and a half later, we are still pretty much in the same predicament, we can’t leave home without a mask or some random person might alter the rest of our lives with a single cough. I would say it’s a lot better now, but to be honest, we’ve had so many different versions of the same stupid disease that it’s turning into Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. At this point, we don’t even know what to call it anymore, cause I’m not sure omicron is catchy enough, so let’s stick to COVID-19. But as we hope to have our positive world back, and to never see another mask again besides in Grey’s Anatomy, all we can do is pray that each year is better than the last. Let’s go 2022!