By: Kevin Mensah

I have vague memories of what I wish I could experience today. It was a freezing day in the winter of 2014. Currents of cold air escaped from my window and reached me in the same manner as if a frigid hand suddenly grasped my neck. It had snowed the other night, but I assumed there was school. I got dressed, wore my jacket, and put on my boots prepared to go outside. I proceeded to go to my grandma’s room so we could walk to Helen Street. Surprisingly she told me that there was a delay. I leaped for joy. I recall making myself a mug with hot chocolate and marshmallows, turning on my tablet, and listening to “Night Changes” by One Direction.  I scavenged for the marshmallows in the boiling steaming milk before they evaporated into nothingness. It was similar to a lion hunting a zebra prying its claws into its flesh while the zebra barely escapes. And yes, it was that dramatic. When I want a marshmallow, I want a marshmallow. We all crave a mouthful of melty, chocolatey, oo-gooey deliciousness, (well not if you’re lactose intolerant of course) but 2020 brought us just the opposite. 2020 gave us mouthfuls of salt to be exact.

I wasn’t allowed to go on the internet during the weekdays but that snow day was an exception. An exception that I may never experience again in the future. In the same sense here we are today.  One Direction split up, and we are all chasing our own individual marshmallows in the Swiss Miss of life. There are things in life we yearn for, but cannot even grasp in our thoughts. The bucket with holes we want to fill with water. The life we want to live but it is impossible to do so. And here we are on a cold day in December just thinking about how the night changes. We may never experience snow days again because of the technological advances with Zoom, but we should still keep hope.

Hope in ourselves. Hope in each other. Hope in our community. Be sure to wear your masks and practice social distancing to prevent the spread of Covid. Let’s keep faith in our hard-working scientists and health care workers. Hope is the ray of sunshine in the middle of a storm. The water that quenches your thirst. The love, joy, and happiness that engulfs your soul. The single flame that only needs a piece of wood to keep alive before it is rendered to a pile of soot and ashes. Have hope friends, that the memories in your past will be experienced in the future.