The past twelve months have been pretty unbelievable for myself and countless other Americans. I thought that it would be prudent to remind everyone about how wild this past year has been. So, here are some of the most notable events from in the last 12 months.
-Spring Break 2020: March 7th to 13th, 2020
I went home to New Orleans to spend Spring Break with my family. My Spring Break started off pretty normal. Spending time with friends/family in NOLA was the main thing I did. Life changed on Wednesday, March 11th. That night, I went to my first ever LSU baseball game in Baton Rouge with a friend. That night, stuff got real. I distinctly remember my brother texting me that NBA player Rudy Gobert got COVID and the NBA shut down. Actor Tom Hanks contracted COVID. Moreover, the WHO declared COVID-19 to be a global pandemic. The next day (Thursday, March 12th), my college decided to extend our Spring Break for the next two weeks with the belief that we could come back to campus after that time. News flash, that didn’t happen. Flattening the curve became stay locked in your house for the next several months. The next day, the NCAA decided to cancel March Madness. Everyone was getting pretty nervous at this point. The US only had a a few thousand COVID-19 cases by the end of the week, but no one knew what was going to happen.
-Complete Lockdowns/Restrictions Imposed: March 23, 2020 to Mid-May 2020 (in Louisiana)
Looking back on the lockdowns, it will be hard to describe the government-imposed lockdowns to people who didn’t live through it. Life just stopped for a few months. Churches, restaurants, schools, malls, and gyms were all closed. Live concerts and sporting events did not happen in this stretch. Personally, I did go inside a store for a few months.
The only institutions that stayed open in Spring 2020 were grocery stores/“essential retailers” (including strip clubs and marijuana dispensaries), the government, and hospitals. The government imposed its will by determining that “non-essential” businesses had to remain closed. During this stretch, many small businesses collapsed and closed in spite of the PPP loans and other government stimulus programs. Additionally, e-commerce platforms and companies boomed during the shut-downs. From Amazon to Zoom, UPS to FedEx, and Microsoft to Google, many large corporations prospered while small businesses suffered.
Education also changed rapidly in Spring 2020. Most students had never heard of Zoom or done an online class before the COVID-19 shutdowns started. With no in-person classes happening for the rest of the Spring 2020 semester, parents, teachers, and students alike had to adjust to this new educational paradigm.
-The Start of the George Floyd Riots: May 25th, 2020
-Personally—Started my Summer Job as an Amazon Warehouse Worker: May 26th, 2020
-CHAZ (June 8, 2020-July 1, 2020)
One of the most hilarious yet insanely scary events during the summer was the new nation born in downtown Seattle: the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. Essentially, BLM & ANTIFA rioters took control of several blocks in downtown Seattle.
Roving bands of leftist radicals invaded the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct building back in June. Also, heavily armed vigilantes became the police power within the autonomous zone. CHAZ was a scary place for the law-abiding citizens and business-owners who daily dealt with harassment and physical violence from these violent thugs
-Pretty Much every Major American Urban City was burned down (June 2020—August 2020)
The Summer of 2020 was a fairly frightening time for most Americans. Looting and rioting occurred in many large American cities in response to the death of George Floyd. Economic losses from the riots range from $1-2 billion in damages. While the economic damages were heavy, the BLM & ANTIFA rioting hurt people. Livelihoods were lost; dreams were destroyed; people were violently assaulted/murdered. What a tragedy.
-Start of the NBA Bubble Reset: August 2020
-Personally—Start of the College Semester: Mid-August 2020
-US Senate confirms Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court: October 2020
-Record-level Hurricane Season in the Gulf South region: late summer/early fall 2020
-Presidential Election: Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Many Americans—including myself—were afraid that America was going to collapse after this election. The results were uncertain for a few days, but most major media outlets called the election for Joe Biden by the subsequent weekend. A lot of shady incidents occurred on election today. Of course, questioning the integrity of the 2020 presidential election is now a conspiracy theory. According to my state’s Senator Bill Cassidy (a Republican), asking for an election audit to ensure the fairness of the 2020 presidential election would “damage our democracy”. On the other hand, claiming that the Russians hacked the 2016 presidential election—on behalf of Donald Trump—is an acceptable opinion. Alas, I digress.
-Personally—I attended Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit 2020 conference: December 2020
-The Washington DC Protests & Storming of the Capitol building: January 6, 2021
-2nd Impeachment of President Donald Trump: January 13th, 2021
-Inauguration of Joes Biden as the 46th President of the USA: January 20th, 2021
Biden’s inauguration did not have any outside attendees supposedly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Washington D.C. looked like the capital city of a third-world country with the outsized military presence in D.C.
-GameStop Short Squeeze: late January 2021—early February 2021
GameStop’s stock had a rollercoaster ride in January and February 2021. To start January 2021, GameStop’s stock price hovered around $17 per share. By the end of January 2021, its share price peaked to over $350. A few weeks later, the share price tumbled back to $40. Now, its stock price jumped back over $130.
As an accounting and finance student, I enjoyed seeing how the subreddit WallStreetBets and GameStop’s stock dominated the news cycle at the end of January 2021. What made this whole saga really enjoyable was seeing several Hedge Funds—such as Melvin Capital—lose billions of dollars by shorting GameStop.
-Winter Storm Uri (“The Polar Vortex”): February 2021
According to the Wall Street Journal, three-quarters of the contiguous USA was under snow cover in the week of February 15th. Texas got hit pretty hard with record-level cold temperatures. Millions of Texans lost power during the rolling blackouts.
I think most of us can say that the last twelve months have been pretty crazy. We can only wonder what can happen in the next 12 months.