1. What I’ll always remember about this year was the deathly impact of COVID-19 and the abrupt change of pace in life due to the pandemic, everyone had to experiment and find ways to proceed with the year while also adapting to society’s new stay-at-home behavior. I also won’t ever forget the Black Lives Matter protesting done around last year of June – August.
  2. The truth is, I spent most of this year very stagnantly, I’m not a very active person so throughout quarantine I didn’t really move much if you didn’t count the few steps I did in the house to do chores. Healthwise it was really bad and as of the past few months, I’ve been a lot more active since the beginning of quarantine. I spent most of my quarantine either guiding my younger brother in online classes, attending my own classes, or playing video games. I had also called with my friends every day through discord because I couldn’t really see them in person. I didn’t draw as much as I anticipated this year because I got in the worst art block of my life, and I wouldn’t draw for weeks..
  3. Some images that will stay with me from this year are the empty streets of New York, seeing bustling places like Times Square empty like a ghost town really stuck with me and made me realize even more how seriously bad this pandemic has been, and how life is truly different now. Other images that will stay with me from this year are people wearing masks in the street, my 6-year-old brother sitting in his chair while he’s in his online class.
  4. I don’t think I have any songs that I associate heavily with this year..
  5. Some things I’ve celebrated in spite of the hard times have been birthdays and general holidays like Christmas, and Thanksgiving. One difference was that we weren’t able to take my little brother trick-or-treating this year.
  6. Quick takes from the news:
    1. I’m glad that there are more attention and awareness of racism/racial justice as of this past year, because not only now have these problems been occurring. Police brutality has been going on for years and years and George Floyd was just the tip of the iceberg. During the times of the protesting, I was afraid of my father going outside for work, because I saw many news stories of black people getting attacked, killed, or kidnapped during this time. And speaking about more recent months, there has been a rise in Asian hate and I’ve been afraid for my mother (whenever she goes outside) these past few weeks, seeing many stories about (usually older) Asian people getting attacked or killed.
  7. It doesn’t hurt to laugh during these times, it’s honestly some people’s best ways to cope during the way life is. Have a laugh if it makes you feel better, there’s no problem to sometimes have a good time just as long as you aren’t laughing at this year’s actual situation and problems, like the pandemic, etc.