Most years, I’ve penned an opinion piece of why I’m looking forward to the following year.
It’ll have the reasons you’d expect. Coming events. Fundraisers. Hockey games. Cool stories. Maybe an election. And it ends with the prediction that we’ll deliver a high-quality product to your front doorstep every week that will keep you informed of everything happening in the city.
Well, when I look back on my reasons to look forward to 2020, there wasn’t much that actually materialized. I don’t have to explain why.
Sure we had provincial and civic elections, and some cool things happened early in the year. A favourite moment of mine came early in the year, when an opinion piece brought the provincial tourism ambassador, the Saskatchewanderer, to Estevan for three days, allowing her to experience what Estevan has to offer in the winter. Of course, I was on holidays when she visited.
And we once again showed what a generous group of people we are down here.
But as a whole, this year looked nothing like I thought it would.
I can go into an elaborate list of reasons why I’m looking forward to 2021, or I can give you one reason that we’re all looking forward to next year: the end of pandemic restrictions.
Nobody wants to still be in the position we’re in now in 12 months time. If you do, then I question your mindset.
Nobody wants to be in a situation in which hundreds of Canadians, and thousands of people around the world, are dying every day because of this virus. Nobody wants to hear about quarantines, “non-essential” business closures, self-isolation and mandatory masks ever again.
We want to see our businesses open again and we want to see businesses return to more normal operations.
We want those in health care to return to more normal work (if such a thing exists for doctors and nurses), and we want teachers to teach students in the classroom, without having to worry about a return to online learning.
We’re all suffering from COVID fatigue and COVID frustration to different degrees right now. The challenge is trying to keep it from becoming COVID rebellion.
I’m not sure how long it’s going to take for us to get back to a sense of normal, where we can shop without masks and meet up with our friends and pack Affinity Place for a hockey game or a community event. It’s not going to be early in 2021, but if these vaccines do what they’re supposed to do (I’m cautiously optimistic), then hopefully we can have some fun again in the second half of the year.
I don’t know if we’ll be fully back to normal by the end of 2021, but I’m confident that we’ll be closer to that normal than we are now.
Yes, there have been a lot of positives that have come out of this year, ranging from the generosity of some people amid such trying times, to the adaptation of some businesses so they could continue operating, to the efforts of the public to thank front-line healthcare workers and others who have worked tirelessly since early March.
But as a whole I join the chorus that says so long to 2020. Hopefully the next nine years of this decade are better than the first one.
I have other reasons for looking forward to 2021. I’m looking forward to the continued efforts of Estevan’s economic development committee and seeing their work rewarded. I’m looking forward to seeing what our new city council does in its first year together. I’m looking forward to new businesses coming to Estevan, and showing confidence in Estevan and its people.
I’m looking forward to the generosity of the people of this city showing through once again at the fundraisers that improve the lives of so many in the community.
I’m looking forward to actually being here should the Saskatchewanderer pay this city a visit again. (You can consider this an invitation to the next ‘Wanderer to come here).
Oh, and one more thing. You can once again look forward to 52 editions of the Mercury, filled with the variety of news from the community throughout the year. (And daily updates on www.estevanmercury.ca of what is happening in the community).
