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There’s no doubt going to be a sense of us collectively releasing a deeply held breath this New Year’s Eve.

We thought 2020 was a nightmare and rightly so. We thought 2021 could be better, but it was just as filled with the trials and tribulations we were hoping to leave behind last year.

But, we’re still here and we made it to another turn orbit of this rock.

The question begs to be asked: Is it worth hoping for better? There is plenty to suggest that things will be just as pessimistic next year as they are this year. The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t likely to go away soon, societal pressures are increasing, our government appears to be irrevocably broken.

But we choose to answer the question with an affirmed “Yes!”

This country has seen its fair share of trials in the past including the death of Abraham Lincoln coming off the most bloody war ever on American soil.

There was 9/11, racial injustice and increased violence, but we must find it necessary to continue to hope for things to get better because sometimes all we have left is hope.

But hope has to come from a point where humanity as a collective can agree that we must all be better and not one of us can walk through this life alone, expecting to carry the mountain on our singular shoulders.

Hope is what kept Dr. Martin Luther King preaching. Hope allows us to take that extra step forward to solid ground. Hope allows us the window to a better future that should we just open our eyes, we can see a gleaming light.

Hope is ensuring our children have a tomorrow worth living in, but to make that work we must shelve these petty differences and act as a people who want this brighter future for all of us.

2021 was difficult and often felt encumbered, but we have to believe tomorrow is better.

We urge you to take hope into 2022. We urge you to be kind to one another, we urge you to keep fighting to make tomorrow shine.

From all of us at the Austin Daily Herald, Happy New Year!