Story by Elena Sophia Piña-Loucks, Illustration by Mallika Sunder

2021 was a year we will likely never forget. The crazy year started on January 6 with rioters storming the nation’s capital. Seven days later on January 13, Donald Trump was impeached for the second time, and acquitted exactly a month later. 2021 was a year full of ups and downs concerning Covid-19 and people debating over vaccines. 

Amid all the debate over vaccines, President Joe Biden declared March Women’s History month. This was important because it acknowledged all the hard work women had done in the past in all areas- science, math, medicine and more all while having to deal with hardship and discrimination even when many men stole their ideas and claimed them as their own. For example, when Roslind Franklin played a huge role in discovering the double helix structure in DNA, her research was shown to competing scientists who stole it, did not give her credit, and they won a Nobel Peace Prize four years after she died. Womens’ rights were once again debated when many states like Texas passed laws declaring that there will be no abortions allowed after the fetus is 6 weeks old. This new law meant that ifa woman was 2 weeks late on her period and discovered she was pregnant, she could not get an abortion. This six week abortion ban still applies to victims of rape, in cases of incest, and in cases where the pregnancy is non-viable. I hope that in 2022, women will gain more rights over their own bodies and be recognized as equals to men, not only in the United States, but all over the world. 

In 2022, I unfortunately believe that large inflations will continue on everyday products furthering the gap between the impoverished and the extremely wealthy. This means that the wealthy will get richer, and the poor will become poorer. Hopefully, wages will improve and the unemployment rate will go down. 

A  good thing that I hope will come out of 2022 is a growing movement for climate change and sustainability. I believe that it will not only be talked about more, but it will be practiced and realized that we are slowly running out of time to save our planet. Hopefully more laws will be passed to conserve our planet and wildlife. Afterall, while 2022 is just another year, we only have one planet.