A message to close out 2020: Auld Lang *Sigh*

If you’re reading this, congrats! You made it through 2020, or at least you’re hours away from it as of this posting. That deserves a frosty beverage or two. Or several.

It will not be breaking news to anyone here that this has been an absolutely brutal calendar year on a lot of fronts for all of us. We’ve fought and continue to fight a pandemic and each other. We went through an extremely stressful presidential election. Some people had their livelihoods rocked due to record unemployment. It’s been an incredibly lonely time for a lot of people who find their strength through being around other people.

The year has taken a heavy toll on many of us. I lost my father to colon cancer right as lockdowns were setting in and we were never able to give him the proper goodbye that he deserved. I’m thankful I was able to use this forum to write about him. It is easily the most proud of anything I have ever put out into this world.

What followed all of that was uncertainty over the pandemic would affect my career as well as dealing with many of the things everyone else has dealt with. You pick up the pieces and move on the best that you can. We all have.

One of the only sure things in this world right now is this place and what we’ve built here. Despite and wildly unpredictable year with plot twists around every corner, I have never been prouder of what we accomplished and feel like 2020 was the year we took a step forward as a site. Coming here does not feel like work, even though my paycheck tells me that it is. The community we have built here among our staff and in the ways we have expanded our audience — whether it be via Discord, YouTube, podcasting, or simply social media interactions — has been amazing to see. We will continue to grow in all of those areas heading into next year.

To my staff, thank you for all of your hard work and focus when things got weird with the schedule back in March. We never skipped a beat, and that’s the accomplishment we all should be most proud of. (Note: Okay, so maybe creating a commentary track for Cats was skipping a beat)

To our readers, commenters, listeners, etc., thank you for your continued support of our site. We hope that we spoke for you and helped shed light on whatever situation we posted about. You are the lifeblood of this whole operation and we are happy to have you here. We will keep putting out content that we hope you can rally around.

To our peers in the media sphere, your perseverance has not gone unnoticed, either. Your dedication to your beat is inspiring and the quality of your work keeps us on our toes, as well. Your fellowship is important to us and the quality work you put out consistently pulls some of our best work out of us.

2020’s problems do not go away when the clock hits midnight, but the page turns to another chapter. For a lot of us, flipping that calendar over to January might provide a little more relief than it has in years prior to this. But we did it. There’s nothing we can’t get through after surviving the year we did.

Sit down, take a breath, reflect, and do whatever you have to do. This year changed something in all of us. Just know that no matter how difficult things get, you have friends here at MnB.

We love you. Happy New Year!

Anthony