New Year Isn’t A New Start

As 2020 came to a close, you might have noticed a mentality surrounding the beginning of 2021: “Thank God that year is over.” While it’s nice to think that way, the idea that a year’s worth of problems will simply slip away is unreasonable. 

There is a joke in Nick Kroll and John Mulaney’s production “Oh Hello: On Broadway” in which Mulaney’s character jokes that when a celebrity dies, many people post something like “Thanks, 2016” on their Facebook with a watermarked image of the celebrity. This joke lands hard because it’s true. 

Honestly, the idea of “blaming the year” is infuriating to me, as it shows that people cannot take responsibility. They like to blame things on some magical fate to escape realism. 

Now I understand the “New Year, New Me” mentality. It’s a good mental checkpoint if you want to start making lifestyle changes; it’s just infuriating when people say 2020 was so bad that other terrible events “might as well happen.” 

I’ve seen a commercial for a dating app in which Satan himself is matched with the year 2020 (human version). The ad includes a montage of the couple doing terrible things to other people. This might be the lowest level of humor I can possibly imagine. I do not understand what is so funny about 2020 being such a bad year. 

Looking back, there were only two major events during 2020 that usually don’t happen every year: a larger-picture black lives matter movement and a global pandemic. Then, any time after that, if something bad happened in the world (like it normally does), everyone would blame the year 2020 for being so terrible. Apparently, famous celebrities don’t die every year. 

The idea that on January 1st at 12:00 AM the pandemic will end is directly correlated with the stages of grief, specifically denial. Humans have an urge to deny or try to reason with any force they don’t understand. Since 99% of the American population wasn’t around the last time there was a pandemic, they try to reason with it, and deny its impact. 

I urge those reading this to look into themselves and analyze their own deniability, so as not to become a “LOL THANKS 2020” adult.