Is anyone sorry to see 2020 go? As they say, “Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out, 2020!” If I were going to write a novel about 2020, it would be short. “It sucked. The End.” But, was it all bad?

Again, I’m tempted to take the party line of “yes.” Originally, I thought I was going to write my year in review about all the ways this year was the most awful year ever, but then a text exchange among friends got me thinking. …

My friend sent a text the other day, exclaiming about the most amazing spray hand sanitizer she’d found. I responded by saying that the same brand had a peppermint sugar hand soap that was simply the best. So, there is that. I am coming out of 2020 with a favorite hand soap, and excited to track down and try a new hand sanitizing spray.

This year, I also discovered that getting a hand sanitizer that has a scent is a bad, bad idea. I’ve also discovered that any store that strictly enforces spraying you down before you enter it is definitely going to have an industrial strength scent in their disinfectant. No matter how many times you wash your hands for the next week, that smell is never leaving.

I’ve become an expert on the differences between sanitizers, and I have found that I prefer a slightly gel based sanitizer to a completely liquid one, as it clings long enough to make certain that I’ve gotten every millimeter of my hands covered with it. Liquid ones evaporate too quickly, and I end up re-sanitizing a half a dozen times to make sure I’ve gotten it covered. Turns out that having your skin dry out and crack is also a really good indicator for if you’ve sanitized completely. If your hand feels like it’s on fire, you’re good.

Thanks to 2020, our family found out that we have a favorite toilet paper. I can’t actually tell you what brand it is, I just know that whatever brand I’ve managed to buy in bulk this week, or last week, or the week before that, or the month before that, is definitely not anyone’s favorite.

I also have determined which masks are better for when I have to wear one for an extended period of time (thank you disposable medical grade masks) and when I just have to just pull one on quickly to run an errand (thank you cute Harry Potter mask). I’ve also reinforced the fact that I’m not at all crafty, but I’ve been happy to support friends who have made cottage industries out of mask making.

2020 has been a resume builder. I’m just torn on whether I should highlight that time when I was the office manager for a small home-based business with five different departments that all had little to nothing to do with each other or the 10 months I’ve spent as a chef trying to create inventive menus, while hitting the grocery store about half as often.

Human resources may be right up my alley, because mediating grievances among the five of us is not a small accomplishment. Elementary, middle and high school substitute teacher? Yes, that one is probably closer to the bottom of my skill set, but no one is flunking out yet, so I’m going to claim it for my wheelhouse.

Maybe I should add tech support specialist? I still can’t believe that I got a new printer, installed it, set it up to run, and connected it to all my devices. Don’t call me for help. It happened once; the miracle is complete.

All joking aside, though, isn’t that just about the only way we managed to get through 2020? Looking for any ray of light that might signal the end of the tunnel? Looking for joy in the simplest things, the everyday things, the things we’ve been surrounded by for years, but didn’t have the time to appreciate?

Looking at the bigger picture, the divisions in our communities and our country, the rampant illness, the staggering death toll, looking at that, and dwelling on how we are ever going to heal and get healthy again, how we are going to move on without those we’ve lost, that can overwhelm you to the point that there is no way back.

For now, I am grateful that we’ve made it this far unscathed as a family. I pray that it continues. I am beyond thankful that our health care professionals have started to receive the vaccine and will patiently wait until it is our turn to receive it. Although I end most days feeling like I’ve been run over by a truck, I know that in five or 10 years I am going to look back on these months and be grateful for the time I’ve been able to spend with my children. These are the months I will cherish when they’ve decided to leave home for bigger adventures.

We have probably watched dozens of movies together, prepared hundreds of meals for each other, painted walls and painted more walls. We’ve been under each other’s skin more than we haven’t, but through it all, we’ve managed to become closer and have some good times, too. We’ve all had a birthday in quarantine now, and we’ve celebrated almost every major holiday. And, we’ve survived. As we hone in on one full year of this, it all somehow becomes more manageable, not just because of the vaccine on the horizon, but because we’ve done this all once already, and we know we can do it again.

2020, much like 2001, is going to be a year that changes everything. We abandoned “normal” quite a while ago, right around the time we found a favorite mask style, or the best hand sanitizer, or hand soap, and when we realized that we really didn’t need that much toilet paper. 2021 is going to be 2020: the sequel, for a while, but there is hope that we will find our new normal. It will be up to us to decide what that looks like.

Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News. Her column appears weekly in our Saturday feature section.