I wasn’t planning on writing a recap of 2020 but this morning while I was in that still-waking-up phase I saw a nice and succinct recap by my internet-friend / guy-I-went-to-highshool-with Sam, and I felt inspired to do the same. Following his approach, I’m not trying to comprehensively recap everything I thought or experienced much less everything that happened in the world (everything from the impacts of COVID-19 to the US presidential election). 2020 was a lot of bad but that shouldn’t erase the good. To quote Tolkien: “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
JANUARY
After a nice quiet NYE with my sister in Louisville, I started the year off by building my first Instagram filter on a whim and year-to-date it has 7.7 million impressions, 2.9 million opens, and 1.9 million captures, making it by far the most viral thing I’ve created. At that point in the year I didn’t cringe at the word viral.
I also started out 2020 reading two of the best books I read in the year: a book on building habits in an age of distraction and another book on the science and importance of sleep, which IMHO you must read and abide by. I also got back on skis for the first time since breaking my leg in 2017.
FEBRUARY
We can agree that the first two months seem to belong to a different year, right? Hard to remember what happened that far back before life changed. February stand outs include getting to see my friend Donald in a new really good musical “Gun & Powder” in a DC-area production, traveling to Florida to shoot a wedding (my first one primarily shot with 35mm film), getting into stocks on Robinhood with a couple guy friends (very good or bad timing depending on how you look at it…), and a solo trip to Lake Tahoe for some of my favorite skiing I’ve experienced.
MARCH
Took a work trip to San Diego and continued weekly Instagram posts of wallpapers and “color theories” as a way of trying to be consistent with content. One more quick ski weekend to maximize my epic pass on my way to a work conference in LA resulted in a fairly bad concussion. That mid-March week was notable because each day in the hotel in LA my concern about COVID-19 grew exponentially (a few hours of CNN each day will do that to you). I moved my return flight to DC forward out of concern that airlines might shut down. I contracted the virus at LAX (I was one of the first in DC tested when I got back and the results came two days after my just-to-be-safe isolation period ended). Big early adopter, I guess.
I also turned 30 in quarantine. My sister gave me one of the best gifts I’ve received - a two hour compilation of birthday wishes from friends. The messages encouraged me as I was stuck by myself in the early days of the pandemic but more than that I knew how much work she put into learning to make it, which really made it meaningful.
APRIL
Before DC completely shut down my friends Sara and Marco rescheduled and rearranged their wedding and I took photos for them. The socially-distanced event caught the attention of the media as we all were trying to figure out how life had to adjust, and it was a little surreal to see my work on BBC, CBS, etc.! I decided to master cast iron steak recipes. I ate a lot of steak. A lot. Like, 16 oz steaks for dinner 5-6 days a week. No regrets.
MAY
Looking back, I have a certain fondness for late March - late May quarantine. I took late night walks and connected with old friends over long phone calls. My extended family established weekly Zoom calls, partly to keep my grandmother company since her living situation prevented her from nearly all in person human contact (a particularly dangerous aspect of the pandemic in my view - we need human contact and love in person). Most evenings I joined a zoom call with some friends and we just talked and played games like Dominion. It felt like a virtual college dorm experience - time spent together online without specific purpose.
I dove deeper into film photography, trying medium format on a Hasselblad I bought on eBay, and learning to develop and scan my film on my own. Extremely rewarding.
JUNE
I spent much of the summer in Louisville at my parents’ house. I’ll look back on June as a turning point in how I recognized and thought about issues of race, police brutality, and how we care about other people and their experience. My friend Isaac and his work with United? We Pray have been one of the places I’ve gone back to again and again. I also started reading specifically to understand these things more and get outside of just my personal experience. The Color of Compromise was a very good starting place for me.
Our neighbors’ house burned down in a literal raging fire one morning. It felt like a metaphor.
JULY
It became apparent at some point during the summer that most of my family would likely be moving to Arizona this year. One last summer “at home” in Louisville became all the more precious to me. I ordered a lot of Momma’s BBQ and Simply Thai. Things began to try to awkward lurch into a semi-recovered state (like being able to order food to go from restaurants).
Most frustrating, I think, was the lack of certainty about the virus - do antibodies last long, and do they make you immune? How is it really spread? Can neck gaiters work as mask replacements? And why do so many people resist the recommendation to social distance and wear masks?
AUGUST
Finally got around to watching The Last Dance (MJ documentary) with my Dad. Incredible. Began packing and helping my parents move in earnest. Took a couple carefully considered trips over the summer including driving home to KY, and photographing two weddings for friends who had to re-plan everything for small, socially distant ceremonies.
SEPTEMBER
A perfect metaphor for 2020 - I had to say goodbye to my childhood home as my parents finally moved, but in a stroke of good fortune my friends (and college roommate) ended up buying and redoing the house, and have been so gracious to let me stay with them while I’ve been in Louisville. I helped out with one more wedding, and I met someone there and went on a proper date for the first time in a long while. A bright, bright spot in an increasingly dismal year.
Drove one final car load of stuff for my parents out to Phoenix, stopping at a few National Parks in Texas and New Mexico on the way (including White Sands NP, my 42nd National Park on my way to see all of them).
OCTOBER
October started on the heels of a terrible end to September. I was with my sister and my brother and some of his friends out near Flagstaff, AZ, and one of the guys collapsed out of nowhere while I was talking to him. My incredible sister (a nurse) coordinated over an hour of CPR / chest compressions to keep him alive until the helicopter / paramedics could reach us. He ended up dying. We still don’t have answers, medical or otherwise, on what really happened or why a seemingly healthy 20 year old kid full of life and promise would be taken from us so abruptly.
I drove back to DC and stopped through Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (number 43!) One blessing of being back “home” was that my church had begun to meet out in a field and I finally got to see (masked up and at a distance) people I hadn’t seen since March. But, this also revealed how many friends had permanently moved because of the pandemic. COVID-19’s impacts are deep and wide.
NOVEMBER
The aforementioned date in September grew into a relationship by November. I cut my “quarantine hair” and decided to spend the Nov - Jan period with family in Phoenix, partly because the area I live in DC has had a year of gang violence and shootings, some fatal, and many of my friends and roommates have moved. When I go back in January it will be to pack and move to another house or apartment in DC. But in the meantime, nightly hikes in the backyard mountains of Phoenix served as restorative blessings.
DECEMBER
Which leads to this last day of December, this last day of 2020. I won’t take for granted the through-lines of the year - the ability to be with family, the blessings of technology to talk to and “see” friends, a job that allowed a smooth transition to almost full time remote work. New seasons of The Mandalorian and The Crown to watch with my siblings and parents. Figuring out day by day how to pursue friendships and a relationship during an ongoing pandemic. Using unexpected “margin” to consider how to care for and understand people better.
These are just a few touchpoints of the year. I grieve for the losses, especially the loss of life to the pandemic (and other unconscionable deaths like Chadwick Boseman, Kobe Bryant, and our friend Jarod). After today 2020 is past, and I hope that 2021 is a year of hope that begins to reverse the worst of what we experienced in the past 12 months.
