After adapting in 2020, we welcome the new year

We have all bid farewell to 2020 and are welcoming, hopefully a more promising, 2021.

The year 2020 can be described in so many different ways, with so many different words, some not appropriate in a family newspaper. Yes, for the most part, 2020 was really tough.

We all faced hardships, both personal and professional. It’s the year of a pandemic. History in the making that impacted basically everyone on the planet.

It was a year of concern. A year of the unknown. A year of obstacles.

For some of us it’s the year of barely leaving the house. At least it feels that way.

I’ve never been shy about writing about my family. I am a very proud father of a special needs daughter. My oldest has complex medical issues and basically no immune system.

In other words, COVID freaks us out. And, we believe, rightfully so.

We have tried to stay as absolutely safe as possible. March 17, 2020, was my last day I worked in the office. Since then my “newsroom” has been on the second floor of my house. My wife has been working from home since late March. Our youngest daughter is enrolled through remote education at Palmer Junior Middle School. We have not eaten at a restaurant in more than nine months. Our trips to stores are limited. We have not entertained friends and family at our home like we used to.

We adapted.

My wife and I are so very grateful that our employers give us the opportunity to continue to work from home while doing whatever we can to protect our children. Our youngest has adjusted to life as a remote education student, and we are thankful the Mat-Su Borough School District presented families with that option. Even though we don’t dine out, we carry out. We often order our groceries online and pick them at the store.

We tried to get outside as much as we could, especially during the summer, even if it was just time in the backyard. The holidays were quieter than normal. My daughters have not been able to see their cousins from Anchorage in months, but they talk on video chat on a regular basis.

We’ve tried to be proactive, and not base our decisions on simply fear. We’re not sheeple. We wear masks because we believe it is a simple thing we an can do to protect ourselves and others. To me, it’s no different than wearing a seat belt.

Again, we adapted. But that’s just human nature. You have to adapt to survive. That could be the biggest thing 2020 reminded us about. It also does not take a pandemic for that to be true. You have to be able to pivot or change to move ahead in life. It’s just reality. That can be tough when we get so set in our ways. But that’s also part of human nature. We’re creatures of habit.

Things have been very different for months, but we made it through the difficult times of 2020. And because of that we are all healthy, and that’s what I am most thankful for as we start the new year.

Contact Frontiersman managing editor Jeremiah Bartz at editor@frontiersman.com.