I think it's clear that we're not living in the same world we were, say, four months ago, before the start of the pandemic and the death of George Floyd. So much has changed, but there is also a lot that must be done. The coronavirus and fight for racial justice aren't even the only things going on right now: there is the fast fashion crisis, in which garment workers abroad are not being paid for their labor; there is the crisis at the border, in which immigrant children are literally being locked in cages; there is the crisis in Yemen, where civil war and the coronavirus continue to rage, contributing to the famine and unrest.

I'm having trouble thinking of something specific to write about because there is so much going on right now.

There is so much to learn about these individual events, and while I've spent a large portion of my time doing so, I haven't even scratched the surface. I wish I could write an article detailing at least one of them accurately, but to do so would do them all injustice. I will eventually, it's just that I'm still learning, and there's so much to learn. All I know is that things are changing and that is a very good thing.

I realized that I'm changing too, in both small ways and big. I have more clarity about what I want to do with my life, which is to be a writer. I want to write my own book, or start my own publication, or do something that involves doing my own thing. I love books, I've realized. I used to read all the time when I was little and now I've read two books in two weeks, even though I'm an infamously slow reader.

And I'm tougher now, too. I got yelled at at work multiple times the other day and I didn't even go to the bathroom and cry. I did cry in front of everyone when the freezer door fell on my head, but hey, the freezer door fell on my head.

I'm not sure where the sudden calling to my vocation and newfound toughness is coming from, but I think it has something to do with being confined to myself for so long. I was forced to go back to my roots, forced to tough it out, because what else was there to do except keep going?

I may be wrong, but I think the world is doing the same. We are going back to our roots, finding pleasure in human interaction and sunshine again. We are facing ourselves and the ghosts of our past, attempting to restore years of deprived justice even though so much damage has already been done. We are sticking together, and being tough, because we've seen a lot this year but that hasn't stopped anyone yet.