The 5 Things team also wanted to share our own lists of things we’re looking forward to. Chief among them: Spending time with you each morning to get you Up to Speed and On With Your day.
I’m looking forward to … looking forward to stuff. Does that make sense? 2020 taught us that even the best laid plans can go awry, so I’m eager for the day when people feel safe and secure enough to look hopefully to the future, agenda books wide open. Once that happens, then baseball. And concerts. And singing with other people again. I also can’t wait to continue testing your patience with my early morning attempts at humor. You are all amazing.
Harmeet Kaur, writer
I haven’t spent too much time yet ruminating on the new year. It still feels like the pandemic is very much in full swing, and at least for the first few months of 2021, things will probably look a lot like they did in 2020. But finally, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. I’m looking forward to the vaccine (obviously) because it can make real again so much of what I missed about this last year: Seeing more of my friends and family, going to concerts, sitting in movie theaters, congregating in restaurants, and traveling to new places. Here’s hoping 2021 can bring back the things that make life worth living.
Faith Karimi, writer
After living like a hermit in 2020, I’m really looking forward to doing a lot of the simple things we couldn’t do due to the pandemic. Like eating guacamole in loud restaurants without fear of coronavirus and taking my son to Kenya to visit his grandparents. I’m hoping to carve more time for things I’m passionate about like biking and writing. The past year has taught us life can quickly change, so I’m taking more leaps of faith this year without overthinking things.
Michelle Krupa, editor
I try not to get ahead of myself, and I suspect 2021 will roll in much the way 2020 flamed out. So, I’m looking forward to lots more runs, walks and bike rides in our neighborhood, take-out dates with my husband, cooking projects with our 9-year-old and helping our kindergartner learn to read. I’m eager for a coronavirus vaccine, and I hope getting a shot in this new year will mean lots of hugging (outside our bubble), traveling, enjoying live performance and returning to the CNN newsroom.
Saeed Ahmed, editor
I’m looking forward to going home. I haven’t seen my parents in more than a year, and they’re going stir crazy locked down in their apartment in Dhaka, Bangladesh. I’m also hoping that this is the year I finally — FINALLY — get to run the Chicago Marathon, my white whale. I signed up in 2018 but had to defer due to injury. In 2019, a death in the family meant I wasn’t in the right headspace. And the 2020 race was (rightly) canceled because … Covid. On the work front, we are cooking up some really cool ideas and I’m excited to get you — our 5 Things family — involved.
