2020 was, to say the least, quite a year. While 2021 was surely improved, things remained a lot different than what I would have imagined it would be like even in 2020. We’re moving into 2022, which I hope will finally be the year that things return to the status quo after the almost-two years we’ve had that were anything but. 

Here are some of 2021’s main events (in the US). For the sake of your time, I’ve kept the news events generally steered away from pop culture and softer news. 

The Capitol Riots. Surely an interesting start to the year; there’s not much more to say here. A group of people decided to break into the Capitol to protest and without a doubt, attention was brought to their cause. Many would say it was productive and accomplished a lot – many would say it wasn’t and accomplished little – but it did accomplish getting former president Trump banned from social media. An odd kick-off.

The Inauguration of Joe Biden. The first president in four years. His administration immediately rejoined the Paris climate accord and World Health Organization (WHO).

Myanmar’s Military Coup. Myanmar’s own military overthrew the elected leader, claiming it would rule the country for a year. Unfortunately – the most that many people heard about it was through an exercise video. Look it up. 

The Texas Storms. Texas recorded its coldest winters in a long time, which resulted in power cuts and many deaths. Ted Cruz received severe backlash for heading to Cancun while his state was freezing to death.

Derek Chauvin Sentenced. I remember this strongly particularly because of social media – this day and the days after, it was hard to even watch Youtube without coming across a somebody talking about it. 

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Though it could be considered something of pop culture today, the Olympics marked a point in which the world began to somewhat turn back to normal. It also represents quite well what I said about the world “stuck” in time – the 2020 year was kept even though the games were held in 2021.

Governor Troubles. Cuomo resigned from his position August 24, going from being hailed as one of the most successful governors to not holding any position at all. Meanwhile in California, Newsom’s recall election took place. Newsome kept his position after a landslide election.

I feel like major events in the past couple of months pale in comparison to the previous. The end of the year seemed to slow down a considerable amount compared to the beginning, which I’m sure I’m not just making up. Compared to the first part of the year – what really happened in the last few months that was earth-shaking like the Capitol riots were?

There, of course, exist many smaller news stories that affected a lot of people that were not included because I wanted to place my focus on the, for lack of better expression, “huge” stories. I contemplated adding many more events, like the Florida building collapse in June, but I felt adding such would detract from the purpose of this article and make it more of a glorified list than a “recap.”

With that said – I apologize if I left out any story that was important to you or that you felt should have been in this list.

I know I’m looking forward to 2022 and the new freedoms that it may bring. Others clearly agree – Reese Gutierrez (9) said, “As we enter the new year, we will be persevering into getting a pre virus state. I am so excited!” I couldn’t agree more. 

I think my New Year’s Resolution is to simply make 2022 a good year. When I’m getting my Christmas tree for 2022, I’ll look back and see if it was (and if it feels like a lot of time has passed!)

Good luck 2022. Here we come.