Greg Jordan: The year 2021 is almost a blur; maybe 2022 will be calmer

Dec. 30—Time seems to speed up when you get older. Events blur together and only a few events stand out as the year comes to a close. Sometimes the events are things historians will examine and debate many years later, and others are personal things histories likely won't consider.

I still remember when I heard about something called COVID-19. At first, it was a disease way off in China and there was talk about whether it would reach America. Then I started hearing about it in other countries. Then I heard it was in Washington state. Then we were having local meetings about COVID and hearing talk about shutdowns, wearing masks and finding enough of them to go around.

Doing COVID stories became a daily routine. We started working at home. Finally came the day when I was feeling like I had a cold and got a test. I heard that my sister, Karen, had caught COVID. We stayed away from mom for weeks. The test came back, and it told me that I had it.

How did Karen react to the news? She said, "Welcome to the club!"

Thanks to modern technology, I could work from home. I found myself remembering the time when working from home instead of an office became possible and how people debated about the idea. Some workers argued that they were more productive at home while others said that workers would pick up bad habits and start slacking if their superiors weren't hovering nearby.

Well, I found that working from home made me work harder. I felt like I had to do more, and I found myself multitasking like crazy. Besides working on stories, I was doing my laundry, making lunch and dinner, dusting and whatever else I thought had to be done. I bought groceries online and picked them up.

I have to admit that I missed going to the newsroom, and it was a relief when I was cleared to go back.

Throughout 2021, I kept reminding myself that this country and the world have been through much worse than COVID-19 and survived. The Spanish Flu went through America right after World War I, and it was worse than COVID. Next came the Great Depression. That event put millions of people out of work and it took us years to recover. During those years, poor agricultural practices created what was dubbed the Dust Bowl in the Midwest. Farmland literally blew away. Dark clouds of it actually reached Washington D.C. while Congress was debating a relief bill.

Those events were followed by World War II, and that war touched every American's life, like it or not. The Cold War started soon after World War II ended with the creation of the atomic bomb. That competition came really close to going hot more than once. I remember learning how close my dad came to being sent to Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis and its brush with World War III. I was too young then to understand what was happening.

I'm sure lots of today's children won't really understand the COVID-19 pandemic until years have gone by. Sometimes I'm not sure if I understand it 100 percent myself.

What I am sure about is that the country and the world will get through the pandemic. We have faced much worse throughout history, and hopefully 2022 will be the year when life gradually returned to something like normal. There will be a day when masks won't be an issue and daily reports about COVID will be a thing of the past. The year 2021 is almost a blur to me, but hopefully the pace will slow for 2022. There will come a day when our older selves will be telling uncomprehending children tales of the day when people wore masks everywhere they went and stopped going to places we called "offices."

I can picture some future great niece or nephew asking me, "What's an office?"

Greg Jordan is the senior reporter for the Daily Telegraph. Contact him at gjordan@bdtonline.com.

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com