2020 Woman

Leah N. Harris

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I am writing a love letter

A love letter to all the women and girls of 2020, the ones who held together and who didn’t, the ones who made it through and who didn’t, the ones who grew stronger and the ones who didn’t 

I am writing a love letter

To the girl who avoided the news like her mother avoided calories, hoping that the bad stuff would stick exclusively to her nightmares and her fantasy books

Instead of playing out on the streets of Minneapolis

To the woman who searched up “how to avoid Zoom fatigue” in between scooping up her daughter who woke up from her nap and letting her dog out for the 20th time that morning 

To the girl who put on her prom dress one night in June, because someone might as well see her in it, even if that someone was filled with stuffing and called Mr Snuffles and looked an awful lot like a ratty old bear 

To the woman who stockpiled Lysol wipes, 3 cans for each of her children, who sent her son out to buy a 5 pound bag of rice so her, her husband, her daughter, her son, and her son’s half sister could all stay in for the next…well for a while

To that woman, I am sending extra love from the son’s half sister, who was sending love then to a woman who birthed her but couldn’t get to her for the next…well for a while 

 

I am writing a love letter because 

I’m the girl who voted in her first presidential election, 20 and tired, wondering when the word democracy became defined as “because if you don’t, your brothers will die in the streets”

I’m the woman who posted a black square on Instagram on the 2nd of June, captioned it #Istandwithyou and then cried alone in her room at the futility of it all

I’m the girl who graduated via the mail, package bent ironically creasing the DO NOT BEND label on the envelope, who bought a discounted frame on from CVS and hung her diploma next to her 6th grade participation ribbons 

I’m the woman who watched her sister pass away on FaceTime 

 

I am writing a love letter to say that

We are the girls who started our own business as a hobby during quarantine and found a love for making jewelry, painting, embroidering, and showing ourselves that we could

We are the women who worked through the night in PPE layered over scrubs layered over clothes and watched as beds filled up, then floors, then drove by a house party on the way home

We are the girls who googled “how to find a therapist” and had their medications adjusted so that there was the right dosage of antidepressant and the right amount of mood stabilizer and a little melatonin on the side

We are the women who talked to the girls who googled “how to find a therapist” and who adjusted their medication so there was the right dosage of antidepressants and the right amount of mood stabilizer and had they considered some melatonin on the side

 

I am writing a love letter to all the women and girls of 2020

And to you, to me, to all of us

From you, from me, from all of us

I love you