This year, I am especially grateful for my family. When we went into quarantine, one of my only thoughts was getting out of the house. I wanted to be anywhere but with my family members. Quarantine became even more frustrating when I had to take care of my little siblings. Though it certainly should have been a joy, I lost sight of that and only focused on the bickering, the hardships, and the petty annoyances.

Then, quarantine stopped, and our life returned to a relative normal. Looking back on it, I miss those days in some ways. Sure, being stuck in a house with little day-to-day excitement was boring, but my family helped make it better. If it weren’t for all of the makeshift obstacle courses, pillow forts, “High School Musical” marathons and water table shenanigans, I doubt I would have been able to make it through the pandemic at all. Even though my grumpy self would have had fun with all of those activities, the joy wouldn’t last. Now, I can see that my family was the best thing to have during a pandemic; without them, quarantine would have truly sucked, to speak colloquially. Looking back on the time spent with them, I can see that those seemingly endless days of waking up, helping with my siblings, eating meals, and taking walks around the neighborhood were the best things that probably happened for that segment of 2020, and for that, I am so, so grateful.