So it seems that every one this quarantine year is either focusing on upgrading their cooking skills or working out so they can look better naked walking around their house. I am on team cooking because my motivation to work out is currently on Empty.  But I think one thing we can agree on is that watching the news incessantly is not the correct move for 2020.  I think it is kind of ironic that the number that represents perfect vision is the one to define this year. People say hindsight is 2020; well, we’re going to have to tell our kids something a bit different about 2020. Maybe things like “Son, let me tell you what 2020 was about!” and then your son says looks at you with uninterested eyes as you shout “2020 was about not knowing what was gonna happen next including your conception hahaha”.

Well, I really hope the year goes better because this year will probably make or break us as a human race. I don’t mean to scare anyone but already, this year has shown us the people who have integrity and those who do not. Not to bring up this old quote by Martin Luther King Jr but he spoke wisely when he said that people should not be judged by the color of their skin but the “content of their character”. Ladies and gentlemen, 2020 is a group project and we should all have enough integrity, honesty, and respect for one another. Hoarding 100s of hand sanitizers is not integrity. Lying about feeling unwell is not honest. Being too close to someone in a supermarket is not respectful. The people who are lacking in character are the ones who will drag us down with an F for failure in this 2020 group project from hell. So let’s all try to do our best in keeping each other safe. And of course, as the air hostesses say on the airplanes that we all miss so much: “please put your mask on before helping others”.

Also, let us not forget the Black Lives Matter Movement. Again, let us judge people by their character and not their skin. Cops and vigilantes who are killing people and at disproportionately higher murders of black people should be arrested. Let us call a spade, a spade, and murder, murder.  And let us look at all institutions that have targeted black people in a harmful way. Let us look at prisons, department stores, and even schools as they serve as a pipeline to prisons. As a medical professional, it scares me to know that maternal mortality rates are higher for black women in the U.S. than for other races. It also scares me to know that Native Americans, Black Americans, and Latinos have higher rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations (see linked CDC source). My medical career is less than 5 years but I hope that throughout my career, I can be of use in reducing health disparities. I am sure we can all find a way in our professional and personal capacities to be better humans so that we can leave a better future for our children; a future where 2020 is a distant memory rather than a cloud of darkness that follows us for the rest of our lives.

July marks the half-way point for the rest of the year and I am trusting in the powers above that things are going to get better. I am proud of the protests that have happened thus far and the small successes of institutions committing themselves to address racial inequities. This is a demonstration of the power of the human spirit and I believe that is what will allow us to overcome the challenges of 2020. Let us not call 2020, “the year of doom” but rather “the year of character definition”. Let us work on ourselves. Let us keep on going. Let us overcome. And I truly believe that “we shall overcome!” Peace and ❤ to you all in the rest of 2020.