The Key to a Happy 2021? Lowering our Expectations

Anton Riehle '21
December 2020

Around 7 p.m. on December 31, 2019, I was writing from my hotel room in Germany a lengthy paragraph on Instagram about how great the last year had been, and that I was wishing everyone health, happiness and great success in 2020.

Little did I know a deadly virus was taking hold in Wuhan, China and making its way to Germany at the exact moment I was writing that post. (Perhaps it had already arrived.)

A mere eleven weeks later, schools, restaurants, stores and public places around the world were shut down for months.

Three weeks later, Breonna Taylor was shot dead by police while sleeping in her apartment.

Almost six months later, George Floyd was suffocated to death in Minneapolis. The next day, Minneapolis would burn and Portland, Seattle and Chicago would follow.

On the subject of burning, four million acres of California would burn after a gender reveal party. On September 22, the United States would surpass 200 000 deaths from COVID-19.

The next day, Breonna Taylor’s killers would be acquitted in court. By the end of the week, the world would surpass one million Covid deaths.

On October 20, 12 peaceful protesters were massacred at the Lekki Toll Gate in Nigeria.

On November 6, the US election would be counted, at which point heavily armed protesters would swarm the state capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, demanding the vote count stop. Simultaneously, armed protesters in Phoenix would demand all the votes be counted. It seems that in 2020, even a routine election can’t even run properly.

This year has been, in the words of CNN’s Jake Tapper, “a hot mess inside of a trainwreck inside of a dumpster fire.” So no: not as much health, happiness and success as I’d hoped.

At long last, as 2021 approaches, the end of the tunnel seems to be in sight. Things are starting to look up – Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines have recently been approved by the FDA, with several other companies close behind. President-elect Joe Biden has already assembled a coronavirus task force composed of specialists from some of the best institutions in the country. All of these positive changes and more have given us every reason to be optimistic.

On the other hand, it’s always important to remember how unexpected this whole disaster was and how complacency can be so very dangerous.

Who expected on that fateful Wednesday evening that we wouldn’t be back for months? I thought we’d be back Monday. Even with a vaccine, it’s possible that life won’t return to “normal” until as late as 2022. Dr. Anthony Fauci calls this sort of attitude “cautious optimism”. Indeed, cautious optimism is what granted students at GHS a privilege not afforded to many high schoolers in other parts of the US and Europe: a return to in-person learning. We must be prepared for the worst case scenario, or else we will be disappointed by the grim realities of our postmodern dystopia.

So in 2021, I’m not looking for joy and great fortune. I’m not asking for a miracle. In 2021, I’m looking for average. Decent. Not bad. Because when your whole world has been dragged through hell and back for a year, anything in the realm of “decent” would be a miracle.