2020: A Summary

 Hello there! 

Well, 2020 was quite the unusual year. A global pandemic, everyone in their homes, Donald Trump becomes the first US president to get impeached twice... For a long time, I've been putting off this blog, because as I understand it, not much happened between March and September. But it's here at last!

I found a picture of the date surrounded by viruses, but it seemed a bit too topical.

January

January involved more mock exams. As per usual, I didn't do well. 

I also looked after Frodo and Sam! Only for a couple of days, though.

I remember that Covid-19 made its appearance in late January, early February. Though now I'm not so sure - apparently, the first case occurred in November 2019. Additionally, my mum had a bout of 'flu' in January, involving continuous coughing. So, who knows.

We live in a beautiful world

February

Now, February was an interesting month - Covid was becoming more prevalent. 

I also did a Biology Olympiad. I did reasonably well.

Another thing that happened was I attended a Laser Kombat event with an organisation called Oxfordshire Friends of the Young Deaf'; it was lots of fun.
My Sixth Form also had a Valentine's Ball Social, featuring the return of RELATIONSHIP BANDS!! ...I don't know why that's so exciting. I wore green, indicating single. A group of classmates were suitably impressed - evidently, they expected that I would hook up. My band colour didn't upgrade over the course of the evening, let's put it that way. I had to leave early, once again missing out on the final 15 minutes, because my sister wanted to leave early, and my parents didn't want to make multiple trips to the event to pick us up. Ah well - I finally featured in my selfies!

My dad was away for about half the month - he came back in March, just before Covid shut everything down. Talk about lucky!

Me and a good friend.

March

March really was a 'month of trials and tribulations'! Well, if you want to be slightly melodramatic. Covid was sweeping the globe, people were panicking, toilet paper supplies were at an all-time low. (Seriously, future historians are gonna look at that last one and say "No, that has to be made up!" And it really happened!)

Something that happened in March was my school's Christian Union did testimonies about their faith. The people who actually delivered testimonies were the leaders, one of their friends, and me. Due to a miscommunication, I gave my testimony to one of the leaders at church, assuming she'd bring it in on the day. She did not, as she assumed that I had a copy of my testimony. I didn't, meaning that I had to recite the thing from memory! It wasn't as bad as I expected, though.

Also, schools shut down at the end of the month. I finished my final year of secondary school three months earlier than I had intended. In a way, we came to the parting of the ways - this blog was always about my experience of Sixth Form.

Though I didn't quite finish school - I still had work to do, I just did it from home.

Some scenic woods. I took the picture for an Africa post.

April

I'm going to be honest: very little happened in April. I stayed home and worked, much like the rest of the world's population.

There are some details of things which would have happened in April on the calendar, such as visiting my godparents, but it's a while ago now, so I actually can't remember if those things happened. I took up jogging at one point. I also might have had asymptomatic coronavirus - my toes got really swollen and painful. Apparently, that's a symptom of coronavirus, in some cases.

Pets benefitted from lockdown, at least.

May

May was more of the same. New things, though - I started my short-lived series of reviews! I might continue them one day.

I would have had exams except they were cancelled.

Another thing was that Oreo was maybe born in May, though we aren't sure exactly when he was born.

This picture isn't from May, but it is hilarious, because Pippa looks so weirdly nervous about getting her picture taken.

June

June, the final gasp of exams! My final exam would have been Biology Paper 3 on the 15th.

I continued my short-lived review series, culminating in probably one of my favourite books, Never Let Me Go. I also started writing a series of blogs on life in Africa.

During June, I also started making preparations for university - mostly disabled student support stuff.

If you haven't read it yet, go read it!

July

In July, we welcomed Oreo into the family! When he was a small kitten, he was tiny! He was also quite shy - something which hasn't changed much. For the first month, he had to be kept separated from Pippin, as Pippin doesn't like cats much. It's a lurcher thing, apparently. They eventually became friends - the turning point was when Pippin came back from a long walk on the Cotswolds. Oreo escaped from upstairs and met Pippin for the first time; Pippin was so exhausted he basically went "Oh, you exist." We gave him a treat as a reward...except he was too tired to eat it! Though I think Oreo still felt slightly threatened by Pippin; if Pippin entered a room where Oreo was, Oreo would stand on two legs and whack him. Such a sweet kitten...

Something else that happened was I made a lot of Minicraft stuffed toys for family friends, including a tiger cub and a puppy for Neve and Huw. Uncle Will was the one who bought me and Karys our first kits - a tiger cub and a puppy.

Some of the toys I made

August

August was when I received my exam results. I did pretty well - I got an A in English Literature and Language, a B in History and a C in Biology.  The marks were based off my schoolwork over the previous 2 years. I got into Reading!

Will and Hel also visited in August; it was nice to see them. Something quite surprising was that Huw tripped over Pippin and he actually growled. At a two-year-old. I've trodden on him (by accident) many times, and elicited only a pained look of 'Why did you do that?' A toddler trips once and he goes 'DON'T do that!' In fairness, all he did was growl.

Tiny Ri-ri!

September

Well, here we are! Uni time! Though not quite yet - I only moved to Reading on the 20th. In early September, we went on holiday to a place in Shropshire called Jackfield Mills, with Granny, Tessa, great-aunt Sally and Pippa. It was a lot of fun. One of the highlights was probably the walking. Also, we went to the nearby town one day, and I ate one of the best pork pies I've ever had. On the same outing, I got a picture with the signatures of all the actors to play the Doctor so far, from a signature shop. Unfortunately, it's closed now.

I moved into my halls on the 20th; I found that nearly everybody else in my flat had already moved in.

That week, from the 20th to the 27th, was Freshers' Week. As might be expected, there were not many events. I did select my modules for the upcoming year, though! Autumn term was a module on immigration into Britain, a module on black history in relation to Britain, and a module on belief in the Middle Ages. Spring term was warfare in Early Modern Europe, Iran's relations with the West in the modern era, and the rise and fall of chivalry in the Medieval period. They were fun.

My parents and Pippin on a hill

October

October was fun, though it was mostly work. My parents visited half-way through, which was nice.

I joined multiple societies, including the Christian Union and the Science Fiction society. 

I also started making arrangements for housing for second year, with limited success at that time.

In addition to that, I started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix. It's very good - I highly recommend it.

There are still squirrels! I also saw a cat on campus the other day.

November

My birth month, zodiac sign Scorpio. Or Sagittarius, if you're born after 22nd November. Happily, my birthday fell during Reading Week. Reading Week is a period where you don't have any seminars or lectures. Don't be deceived, though, it's not relaxation time; it's for preparing for assignments. I spent Reading Week with my family.

I also made more headway with finding a house - the freshers in CU created a Whatsapp group for house-hunting. Well, six or so of us did; over time, multiple people left, leaving just four. 

I found the Harris Garden - it's a hidden garden on the Whiteknights campus, There's a gravestone in the garden, belonging to somebody called Michael. It's not the grave of the founder of the garden; it's a mystery.

This is from a couple of years ago, but I like it.

December

Most of December was the Christmas holidays - my term finished around the 8th.

It was nice to be back home. Though I still had to do lots of work, including a 2,500-word essay for the start of term.

Pippin was happy to see me - it was nice to see him. I think Oreo was also happy to see me - it's harder to tell with him.

Of course, a second lockdown happened towards the end of the Christmas holidays, trapping me at home.

I don't really remember much else that happened in December. I got a nice hat, scarf and gloves for Christmas from Sarah; the hat had a torch in it! Unfortunately, the torch has broken off...

I don't really have many photos.

Overall, I don't think this was a fun year. I'm not sure it was fun for most people. Looking back, it already seems unreal - everything seems almost back to normal, in England at least. We already have lots of people out in public, albeit wearing masks in a lot of places. Of course, it's not the same everywhere - lots of places are still struggling.

Though a lot of other stuff happened in 2020, which I feel like Covid overshadowed. For instance, there were the Black Lives Matter protests in June; the protests suddenly erupted in response to George Floyd's death, lasted several months, then died down again. And I've seen barely anybody discussing the protests lately, even though the problems which prompted them are still ongoing. Like Covid, they came out of nowhere, had a big impact, then seemingly died down, except that unlike Covid, there's almost nobody talking about them. 

In August 2020, there was an explosion in Beirut which killed 218 people - I haven't seen much mention of that either. Covid has dominated the public consciousness, which is fair enough, given its global repercussions; but I feel like it's blinding us to other tragedies as well. Or maybe that's human nature - we only really care about something if it affects us. 

Covid affected all of us - every single human being alive was affected in some way by it. What I think would be really amazing is if we all accepted that, if we all treated one another as fellow humans. Even for a single day. The Christmas Armistice of 1914 was like that - thousands of soldiers, British, French, German, from opposite sides of the First World War, abandoned the fight and made peace with one another. Bound by a common faith, a common celebration of Christmas, they refused to fight. One day, 117 years ago, just a few thousand soldiers, and it's still remembered today. Imagine if that happened across the world - how much would change, even if it just lasted a day? 

I don't think that would be possible, sadly. But what we can do is be kind. So let's do that.