One Year Later…

A year ago we wrote that we were tired. But little did we know that we were in store for the twists and turns that the dual pandemics of 2020 would bring. We witnessed the death and immeasurable suffering caused by Covid-19. The health pandemic laid bare racial, gender, and soci-economic inequities in health, education, employment, and wealth. Issues that many in our communities have lived firsthand while those of privilege had long been able to ignore.

We wrote that we were tired. Tired of the senseless killing of Black people. We’ve since experienced a moment of justice knowing that one of George Floyd’s killers was convicted while simultaneously mourning his-name whose death occurred moments later.

When we wrote that we were tired, we had only begun to experience the impact of physical distancing and year+ of isolation and time away from our friends, families, and loved ones.

We didn’t know the toll that organizing, pressing on, calling out systemic inequities – while also living through the dual pandemics would have on us.

Eventually, we had to take the breath we wrote about and also pause to respect our own humanity. To care for ourselves and loved ones who fell ill with Covid-19 and other illnesses. We had to mourn those we lost and for many the dreams and plans we had for ourselves that would now be deferred.

We also celebrated! The new lives, birth and rebirth, marriages, moves, graduations, jobs, milestone achievements and something-else of this past year.

To whom much is given, much is required. Through it all we recognize that we are blessed. We are still here and there is much work to be done. Though we may not have been able to be physically in the same room to hug, dap, or greet one another with a smile – we made it. We coordinated and steadily pressed on so that the performative statements were not in vein.