2020 has not been a kind year.
It's been a year that preyed on the weak and the sick.
A year that claimed lives and tested trust.
A year filled with division and upended by chaos.
It's been a year dominated by staggering loss of life across the world.
But it's a world still filled with courage, compassion and heart. Pandemics occur.
They have always occurred, and they will occur.
It would be really shameful if we don't learn from what we've been through.
Amidst tragedy we learned that we know how to put others before ourselves.
Despite resistance,
despite pushback, we persisted. This is a world of resilience,
a world propelled by the belief that overcoming the impossible is in fact possible.
With the inspiration of innovation, we were once again reminded that nothing is out of reach
and that we should shoot for the stars.
Faced with a kind of viral enemy the world hasn't known for generations, we witnessed every day the
true meaning of what it is to be a hero. Society reckoned with inequality,
and people took to the streets and used their ballots to make their voices heard.
Let's stop thinking that our voice don't matter and vote.
Heroes have walked among and will again.
Records were shattered, and barriers were broken.
While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.
We imagine a tomorrow filled unity, not division.
A tomorrow that delivers equality, long overdue.
A tomorrow galvanized to tackle the world's great challenges. 2020 upended
norms and our understanding of normal. It was a year no one could predict.
But we've endured hard years before. We've endured tragedy before.
We've emerged from those years stronger, wiser, better
and so it will be with this year too.