Life in middle school: The positives from a challenging 2020

In a lot of places in the Northern Hemisphere, where it's now winter, there’s snow on the ground and everyone’s wearing cosy sweaters. That's not the case here in Cayman, but a drop in temperature to the chilly 70 degrees feels pretty nice. Now I have an excuse to wear a sweatshirt other than just that it is comfortable.

The start of winter in Cayman also saw it getting dark earlier, which was great for viewing the pretty holiday lights decorating Camana Bay. The golden lights spiralling around the trees were beautiful at night and provided a good ending to a difficult year.

Now that the year 2020, with all its unexpected events, has passed, I don’t know what to expect of 2021. I feel like anything could happen. It can be difficult to see the good in a lot of situations in 2020, but here are 10 positive things that came out of last year from my perspective.

1. Because of little travel around the world and a lot of people staying inside, carbon dioxide emission levels went down — by about 17% globally during the peak of the pandemic restrictions last spring.
2. Several musical artists came out with new albums this year.
3. Certain apps became very popular, like TikTok.
4. Many people learned new recipes.
5. People got very creative with learning new things to do under lockdown.
6. There was an increase in adopting and fostering puppies, kittens and other animals.
7. Small groups and entire communities got together to help those in need.
8. The World Health Organization said that in Africa there haven't been any new cases of the wild poliovirus in about four years.
9. Here in Cayman, COVID-19 was controlled and we enjoyed many freedoms the rest of the world could not for much of the year, which makes us extremely lucky.
10. We got to spend more time with our families virtually and physically since we were with them a lot. I called my grandparents a lot over lockdown and my immediate family and I were under lockdown together, which meant we had the chance to reconnect.

I really hope that 2021 is a much better year for us here in Cayman and for everyone around the world.

This article originally appeared in the January 2021 issue of Camana Bay Times.