Over the past several months, I have come across over a couple of dozen acts of kindness in the community. From random strangers helping out people stuck in the ditches to community members raising funds to help families who lost their homes in house fires. People have come together in ways I wouldn鈥檛 have thought of.

Are you a dog person or a cat person? Someone would ask me and 鈥渘either鈥� would be my quick response, eliciting gasps as if I have said something out of the world like 鈥淚 believe in an alien invasion.鈥� But really, I have never been a pet person. As a child, I used to be pretty scared of dogs. My aunt had a Doberman and he was ferocious and fiercely protective of her and my cousins. That meant anyone who wasn鈥檛 permanently living in their house, was his enemy.

It hasn鈥檛 been easy during the pandemic for anyone, and especially for folks with kids. It has been even harder for kids who are suddenly stuck in their homes in some parts of the world while are separated from their friends and regular classmates in other parts of the world, with no idea on when they would get back to just having fun.

After a tumultuous four years and an election that ended in chaos and attack over the U.S. Capitol, the 46th President of the U.S.A. was finally sworn in last week. While that in itself was a cause for celebration for many, the highlight for many others all over the world, including me, was the swearing in of the first female, first woman of colour as the vice president of the country.

When I started writing for Black Press Media, the pandemic had just started to seep into everyday life and things, events, places were closing down. I remember researching about 亚洲天堂 Lake and Lakes District before moving and I was so excited to be able to witness the very different life through the variety of events from the Snow and Shine to the Fall fair and everything in between. However, by the time I came to B.C.

With the start to the new year, several people all over the world kept thinking that coronavirus would magically disappear and the beginning of a new year would give everyone a clean slate.

There is something about a New Year that brings hope with it. It is like a chance to start over, a clean slate where all the mistakes, procrastination, failed plans of the past year are forgiven (by ourselves) and a chance to reset is given (again, by us, to us).

Just like consuming news in 2020 felt like it was all about COVID, writing it also often felt exhausting especially when every incident, event, opportunity, funding had a pandemic-related caveat to it. So when we went through the entire year鈥檚 news to compile the Year In Review for this and next edition, that鈥檚 when we realized that yes, 2020 was about COVID but also about so many more things.

When the restrictions and COVID-measures rolled out, I heard a lot of people from cities getting upset over cancelled parties and gatherings. And yes, there were these murmurs in smaller towns and villages as well, but what surprised me was just how many people were more upset over how someone else won鈥檛 get Christmas, how folks in seniors鈥� homes won鈥檛 get to see their families, how kids won鈥檛 get their toys under their trees or how families won鈥檛 unite over the holidays.

With talk around the possibility of vaccines becoming available soon, I feel it is time to reflect on some of the things that the pandemic brought upon us that could and should stay the same in a post-pandemic world.