20/20, these numbers are synonymous with the word vision. Yet the year 2020 seemed to lack vision completely. It was easily the most confusing, fear-filled, hopeless year of my life, I imagine yours too.

In 2020, I watched helplessly as my son and his classmates had senior year snatched from their hands in broad daylight. Instantly they became virtual students forced to spend their long-awaited senior year at home, cloaked in hoodies and pajama pants, chained to a laptop all day.

Instead of counting down their final days of high school with pep rallies and prom, they counted the days of lockdown, restarting the clock again and again with each announcement from the powers that be.

The year of vision was clouded by hopelessness. Uncertainty and tragedy was the daily forecast. Isolation and loneliness bred fear, anxiety, and depression- so many demons.

But God was merciful and man’s disaster did not end the human race. (There were days I wondered if it would.) We will always mourn those who were lost. Their deaths were uncalled for. Their isolation, cruel. Their final farewells, forbidden. I honor them now.

Two years later, those of us who made it through, now stand on the main street of society. We have wiped the ash from our eyes, gathered our scattered hopes and resolutely placed them in our backpacks, reluctantly adjusting to the new skyline.

At times, we comply and mask our faces but we will no longer mask our need for true connection. We won’t take anything or anyone for granted. It took some time, but I think 2020 truly was the year of vision.