A Year of Hope

The year 2020 dropped a bombshell and since then everything has changed. From functioning of the companies to the change in the education system, everything shifted towards the virtual platform. And during this time of adversity the only thing that kept people sane was hope; the hope of a better tomorrow as hope is the essence of the human life! Hope helps to withstand situations that are beyond control. With the previous year turning out to be a bummer, people are looking forward to 2021 as the Year of Hope.

The year 2020 has proved to be no lesser than a rollercoaster ride. With the outbreak of the virus that quickly escalated from an epidemic to a pandemic and cost the lives of millions of people, creating havoc. Never did it strike the mind that a situation like this would arise where the whole world would come to a halt and people would be confined between the walls of their houses and the wild animals roaming freely outside in the streets! Can you believe you stayed up till 12 to wish “Happy New Year 2020” with the Coronavirus steadily taking its toll on people’s lives and eventually the economy, the struggle for finding the vaccine has always been there.

The year 2020 lost its spark when the news of the virus hit the world and the nation and the miseries that it brought along. And it was at this point that people wanted the year to end soon so that the New Year would bring them some good positive news and a new wave of happiness would wash away the gloom. 2021 is surely the year of Hope, Inspiration and Excellence for the people. It did bring the long-awaited news of months with itself: The Vaccines. With months of hardships and dedication to defeat the virus, the researchers have finally come up with the vaccines which accelerated the people’s hope.  Not only the worldwide pandemic but 2020 came bearing several other misfortunes like the bushfire, locusts, police brutalities and the protests and before the year 2020 this all existed only in those survival movies! But never did the people think that this time they were the actors here!

No wonder people are waiting to find a peace of mind that everything is going to be okay and this year will be a better one. And again, Hope is all that people have. Other than the vaccine development there are many things that we can hope for this year! A Hope in Humanity: The previous year surely proved that humanity still prevails, with random people helping each other throughout this difficulty. People coming out on the balconies and dancing and caring for each other like never before. Love and Hope messages soaring to medical personnel and the frontline warriors all over the world. All these gestures point towards the Hope that this year can be a lot better and brighter than the past. A hope in Healthcare: This pandemic made people realise the importance of good health and a strong immune system and how hygiene is the main key here. It made the world notice that a well-operating healthcare is a must! A Hope in Science: Science has done wonders in the past and it still continues to do so. Companies like Pfizer and BioNTech had already started collaborating on a new vaccine against the virus even before it was declared as a global pandemic and they did achieve the first authorization in the world for a vaccine to combat the COVID-19. Science can indeed save the world!

Nevertheless, people’s mind is also occupied with confusing thoughts like: whether or not 2021 will be a pandemic free year? Or whether the vaccine will be 100% effective? Or what if 2020 passes on its legacy to 2021? In situations like this people can only make assumptions that none of the dark chapters of the last year will reopen in this year. People have gone through life changing events this past year with both their physical as well as their mental health being affected due to which people have started to pay attention to their mental health in the same way they do to their physical health. As people step on 2021, they need to put the pains and the unpleasant memories that the year 2020 gave them behind and learn to embrace and cultivate the good seeds from it.

                            “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope”

                                           – Martin Luther King Jr.

Rakshanda Shrestha.