As bad as 2020 seems, there were some remarkable events

By about April, it was fashionable to complain about 2020. By summer, it was a cliché. By now, it's exhausting.

Sure, 2020 has been a difficult year. The worst pandemic of our lifetime. An ugly election season with a surge in meanspirited, partisan politics. A toilet paper shortage. That day we woke up with a eye twitch and were uncomfortable.

It's been year that most of us will be able to complain about for the rest of our lives ("Sure, this is bad, but it's nothing like 2020!").

However, as the leader of the made-up organization Optimists Helping Build On You (OH BOY!), allow me to remind you that 2020 wasn't all terrible. Remember, with months remaining before any sort of "return to normal" life is here, that this is the only chance we get to live these months. While it's been terrible to not see friends and family, to have to wear masks everywhere and to be limited in our opportunities to go anywhere, it's not all bad.

Before we relegate 2020 to the historical scrap heap of worst years ever (along with 536, when a fog plunged much of the Earth into darkness for two years, leading to mass starvation; 1347, when the Black Death erupted, eventually killing about 50% of Europe's population and spreading elsewhere; 1919, when the Spanish flu roared through most of the Earth, killing millions; 1943, when World War II was raging and the Holocaust was in full motion; 1968, when America's cities burned and it appeared we could be on the brink of a revolution), let's appreciate some good things that happened.

Because there were some good things:

• Despite two threats of severe toilet paper shortages, we made it (at least of this writing). It was stressful, but did anyone actually run out?
• Most of us became reasonably comfortable wearing masks in public. Think about how uncomfortable you felt about a mask in March compared to now. Progress!
• We put significantly fewer miles on our cars. I've filled my car up with gas three times since March: In June, September and December. Yes!
• We got more proficient at technology. Many of us hadn't participated in video calls before the pandemic, now we do it routinely. Progress.
• We gained an appreciation for traditions that we took for granted. Will you enjoy the next July 4 more? What about the next big birthday party you attend? How about next Halloween? The answer to each is yes.

But mostly, this:

In a matter of months, with support from the federal government, our best and brightest people created a vaccine for a virus that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. The death count is heartbreaking, but think of that timeline: Months.

It took centuries to create a smallpox vaccine. It took more than 35 years to develop a typhoid vaccine. There were more than 20 years between the first attempt at a polio vaccine and when Jonas Salk's vaccine was distributed. The plague has killed hundreds of millions of people throughout history and there's still no vaccine.

But the time from when our first quarantine began and the Food and Drug Administration approved the first vaccines was nine months.

Nine months!

We live in the age of miracles. There was plenty of bad stuff in 2020, but this was a year when scientists created a vaccine for a deadly virus in NINE MONTHS.

Let's see 2021 go bigger than that!

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.