If someone were to ask me to describe 2020, I would respond that it was dark with a pinch of opportunities and optimism.

Every year has a rocky start. Australia suffered the largest bushfires in January. The U.S. launched a missile strike on an Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani, and it was a major controversy that could have caused another war.

From late February to March, the world began to panic. A coronavirus (COVID-19) killed over a hundred thousand people in a month. The pandemic spread around the world, and governments decided to go under lockdown.

The pandemic began in Wuhan, China, and the leading cause of it was bats. Vendors were selling exotic animal meat for profit. It was discovered that in December 2019, residents in Wuhan died of the virus, and others in China might have the virus. It was then contracted by a resident of New York and spread throughout the United States, and New York became the epicenter of the disease.

Gov. Phil Murphy announced in March 2020 that the state of New Jersey will go under lockdown and demanded everyone be quarantined. Teaching was to be online for kids, high schoolers, and college students, and only essential business owners, law enforcement, and first responders could stay open and help.

On March 23rd, I began working from my apartment for my dad’s business. As things changed to the “new” normal, I decided to photograph myself the number of days I was quarantined.

While photographing and documenting the new apartment complex called “The Neil” in Mt. Laurel, NJ, designing flyers and PSAs for different communities, I took time when I had a lunch break or finished my work or objectives of the day. I would take this opportunity to learn how to create better photosand record clips for my portfolio and my dream of becoming a photojournalist. I will also learn more about Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Lightroom.

Each YouTube video I watch helps me practice and understand the tools I should use to edit photos and videos, and to improve my social media skills and experience at current events.

I forgot to mention that last year my father signed me up for social media marketing courses for the company at the University of Arts in Philadelphia, or UArts for short. In January 2020 I had 12 classmates. Some were my age or twice my age. The first class was an introduction to social media marketing, which was easy to understand but challenging.

By February, the second course was mainly creative writing to capture our target audience’s attention, writing blogs, articles, captions, and using specific keywords to improve our SEO on Google or Bing. However, when the pandemic hit, the class began online learning on Zoom. Online classes were odd, but I managed to learn a lot from my professor. If the pandemic hadn’t happened, I would have preferred in-person learning rather than online.

While the world is still on lockdown, people are dying every day from COVID-19. Pharmaceutical companies around the world are racing to be the first to find a vaccine that will be distributed to the world. Dr. Anthony Fauci of the NIAID and the CDC advised people to wash their hands for 20 seconds with hot water and soap, stay six feet apart to maintain social distance, and to wear facemasks when entering buildings or going outside.

However, people who deny science believe that the virus is a hoax, and wearing a mask became a political action and matter. People who maintained common sense and conscience didn’t understand why. Deniers would burn masks and enter stores without a mask; far-right conspiracy groups, such as QAnon, believe the Democrats are to blame for this, and other far-right groups and people would harass and assault Asian Americans. Even the 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, would deny and ignore doctors and experts on the disease and called the virus either the ‘China-Virus’ or the ‘Kung-Flu virus,’ which are derogatory and misnomer terms to call the proper virus. These terms are an insult to Asians.

By May 25, 2020, an outrage and a movement in the U.S. began igniting. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, an African American man named George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer named Derek Chauvin, who put his knee on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds; Floyd shouted in the streets, saying, ‘I can’t breathe,’ and died. African American and Black communities rioted in Minnesota, destroying buildings and businesses and burning down the Minneapolis police station.

The Black Lives Matter organization turned this incident into action, calling for the arrest of the officers involved in the killing of Floyd and demanding justice.

As weeks went by, people from different states rallied and marched, demanding justice for many Blacks and African Americans who were shot and killed. Around June, I attended two different Black Lives Matter protests in Marlton, New Jersey, and Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. Kids who were 16 to 21 planned these events to demonstrate their First Amendment rights and to speak about their experiences being subjected to racism and stereotyping in schools, neighborhoods, and places where they feel uncomfortable because of their skin color. Many community residents, including the township’s police officers, joined the march and spoke about how the incident didn’t demonstrate or exemplify the actions of a police officer in Minneapolis.

Another Black Lives Matter protest took place in October during the 2020 elections, and I recorded a short video of the Black Lives Matter protest in Marlton.

Summer was just around the corner, but nothing was going to be fun over the summer. Every summer, on the weekends, I would go to my dad’s shore house in Longport, NJ. I would enjoy some summer reading and long walks on the beach and go to either Ocean City or Atlantic City with my friends to photograph different places. But with the pandemic still occurring, I was a little afraid to go to the beach because people would sit so close to everyone else and ignore the social-distancing guidelines. But, surprisingly, my father and step-mom bought a boat and named it ‘Somethin’ To Do’ because we had something to do. Clever name, though.

My family and I took out the boat and went to different places, such as Cape May and Atlantic City, and even stayed on the bay to go for lunch or relax and let the boat rock around different bay areas. Sometimes, I didn’t join them; I have bad motion sickness and don’t have any sea legs.

Summer went by quickly. In June, my father’s office reopened following the CDC protocol of wearing masks inside the building. My father hired a new senior marketer and advertiser to help me with social media marketing. My new boss comes up with ideas for my father’s business and helps me create ideas and content for my dad’s apartments’ social media pages.

Everything was going smoothly. We were getting many engagements, interactions, and potential leasers to rent out apartments and move into the new apartment complex

.By fall, I had started to plan areas to hike in New Jersey. Hiking became my hobby after I moved into an apartment back in 2018. I would photograph beautiful scenery in nature, create videos, and improve my videography skills. Each hiking trail was an adventure, and some were anti-climactic.

As 2020 was ending in two months, October was As 2020 was ending in two months, October was considered the busiest and the most critical time during the election season. President Donald Trump, who was trying to win a second term in office, was battling against Joe Biden. Trump thought Biden was incapable and demonstrated poor leadership.

However, with everything that happened in the past four years, Trump lacked the definitive ability to be a leader. He blamed his actions on others, used false accusations, and lied about what was going on in the world. Trump even blamed the media for reporting incorrect information, calling all media outlets fake news. He couldn’t handle the truth and didn’t realize some of his actions were unjustifiable and immature. He was involved in many scandals, such as the Trump University scandal, his affairs with a porn star named Stormy Daniels, using hush money to keep his actions a secret and signing an NDA, and winning the 2016 election by having Russia help to hack the U.S. elections. But Trump used Twitter 24/7 to post lies, incoherence, and toxic tweets.

During the first election debate, people worldwide watched who between the two candidates would be suitable as president of The United States. However, things got rough when Biden and Trump argued liked children in elementary school. Trump even interrupted Biden’s time to answer, and both candidates wouldn’t answer some of the moderator’s questions. As the night ended, Americans were embarrassed to watch what happened. When the second debate was scheduled in late October—virtual due to COVID-19—a new rule was applied to turn off candidates’ microphones if they were over their time and not called to answer. However, the debate was canceled because Trump was diagnosed with the coronavirus. Luckily the vice-presidential debate wasn’t long. Vice President Mike Pence was against Biden’s pick for vice president, Kamala Harris. The debate was calm and felt normal, and with the new rule, it seemed a little better than the first presidential debate.

By the time Trump recovered from the Coronavirus, Trump and Biden decided to debate separately. Trump would have his debate in Florida, broadcast by NBC, and Biden would be in Philadelphia, PA, broadcast by ABC. After their second debate finished, the final debate was even more thrilling: Trump and Biden gave their final arguments, actions, and plans to become president.

November 3rd, Election Day. As the important day arrived, U.S. citizens were out voting, and people were handing in their mail-in-ballots. Tensions were higher than they were in 2016. Trump began to lead with higher votes than Biden, but by late afternoon, Biden had caught up with Trump with an impressive lead. However, as the election drew to a close, things were looking grim where certain states gave Trump the upper lead. People were worried and scared that Trump would be in office for another four years. However, the election wasn’t over. Biden managed to pass Trump with a tremendous lead where red states overturned to become blue. For the first time, the U.S. election was paused because votes were still being counted in 5 states: Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Arizona.

Ballots were still being counted. Trump supporters demanded the election be stopped because they thought Trump had already won. When they realized the opposite was true, they urged the counting be continued. They threatened election officials. People tried to break into the building where ballots were still being counted. Biden’s voters waited outside to hear if he had won. Pennsylvania became the most watched state because its results would decide whether Biden would win the 2020 election. Three days later, on Saturday, November 7th, Joe Biden was announced as the winner of Pennsylvania. He had 273 electoral college votes, while Trump had 214.

Millions of Biden’s supporters ran through the streets in joy. Trump demanded a recount, believing that the election had been rigged and stolen. However, officials declared it to be clean and smooth.

Afterward, people returned to their daily lives. But then the news got even better. Pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Pfizer announced that they had discovered vaccines. It was the most thrilling news. Everyone was excited to be vaccinated and hoped that normalcy would return soon. However, the vaccine was only distributed to the elderly and those with health problems, and it was only released in early January of 2021.

The holidays were approaching. My family and I usually travel to Boca Raton, FL, to visit my grandmother every winter break. Sometimes we go to a new place. However, our travel plans were canceled due to COVID-19. We instead celebrated our winter break in Longport, NJ. It was the first time we stayed in New Jersey for the holidays. Although nothing happened, I photographed some scenery around the shore and used my new DJI Mavic Mini 2 drone to fly around.

As New Year’s Eve came, we didn’t do anything except drink and eat a lot at home. Thus, I entered the new year of 2021, hoping that things would turn around and be brighter than 2020.

With the new year having arrived, it was the same thing as every year. I started to look forward to 2021, where there will be an opportunity for me. My dream career as a photojournalist may come near, or a freelance news photographer job for a newspaper company, magazine, or news station may come. I even got an appointment to get my first Covid-19 vaccination shot on January 23rd. But by January 6th, a tragedy struck at Capitol Hill.

Former President Donald J. Trump held a rally in front of Capitol Hill to tell his supporters to keep fighting and telling Congress and governors that the election is not over and that he still has a chance to win. In reality, he lost and couldn’t bear the loss of the election. Then his supporters and people who are part of the far-right groups The Proud Boys, Qanon, and Oath Keepers stormed into the Capitol building, damaging, rioting, and destroying property in a sacred building in the United States.

People were horrified and shocked to see what happened. Members of Congress and the Senate decided to hold Trump accountable. They declared a second impeachment trial for inciting the insurrection of attacking and storming into Capitol Hill after the Biden inauguration into office. January 6th will go down in history as a terrorist attack and the darkest day in the United States, known as Insurrection Day.

On February 13, Trump’s second impeachment trial came to an end, and he was acquitted of inciting the Capitol Hill attack. It was even the day I got my final and second Covid-19 shot.

The year 2021 started off rocky. Things were looking better than 2020, as I called 2020 the year of being wounded from the coronavirus. While 2021 is the year of being healed. And 2022 will be the year of being patched up and back to normal. Even if it sounds too optimistic, we all learned not to make the same mistakes we’ve seen in history. We need to learn to be better human beings. We all have our differences, beliefs, and views; but we can respect everyone for who they are. It takes time, and with time, well, who knows what 2021 or the future may hold in store for all of us.

One year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have become brighter, creative, balanced, and a storyteller. And 2020 was dark, with a pinch of opportunities and optimism. Even if 2021 will bring dark and horrific moments, we can’t forget, and we can learn to prevent history from repeating.

But how would you describe 2020?