As politically polarizing as this year has been, we’re all in agreement about something: 2020 has been “a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck.” It’s inarguable, near unethical, to say otherwise.

What kind of person would I be if I said: “I know more than 275,000 Americans have died from COVID-19; unemployment has nearly doubled since the start of the pandemic; and we lost a pioneer of women’s rights, an NBA legend and his daughter, and a guitar god (to name a few), but, hey, 2020 has been a banner year for me”?

Aly McDevitt is Data & Research Journalist at Compliance Week. She has a background in education and college consulting. Prior to teaching, she was an editor/author at Thomson Reuters, where she reported...