Area residents express their hopes for 2021

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Although making New Year’s Resolutions doesn’t seem to be a thing anymore, several local individuals still expressed their personal hopes and societal hopes for the coming year, after being approached with questions by a Charles City Press reporter.

What follows are some of the comments that seemed to stand out.

HOPES FOR 2021

“I am most looking forward to a vaccinated public and life slowly getting back to normal.”
— Karl Haglund, Charles City

“We want to take my kids on a big vacation. They’re at ages now where they enjoy going on adventures and experiencing new things. We’re excited to be able to provide that again.”
— Amber Hicks, Rudd

“I want to see a game at Kinnick and Wrigley. … I want the roar of the crowd at events to be from the living people attending in person — can the canned crowd noise.”
— James Severin, Charles City

“The world is continuing to be riddled with misinformation, conspiracy theories, and plenty of hard working folks not making enough. Humanity, however, is what I pray for — I pray that it can heal.”
— Cathy Martin, Shell Rock

“My biggest hope for 2021 is that it doesn’t say to 2020, ‘Here, hold my beer!’”
— Jodi Holschlag, Charles City

“I hope that once things become safe again, we can travel more and see family and friends. I hope that we come out of all of this kinder to one another and more empathetic to those around us.”
— Katie Kellogg, Charles City

“I resolve to lose weight, exercise more, drink less and be a better person. Yah, that isn’t going to happen!”
— Bruce Bergland, Floyd

“For 2021, I’m hopeful that some distance from the 2020 extremities clears our minds and hearts.”
— Kathryn Campbell, Charles City

“I hope to be able to make friends safely at college and have a more ‘normal’ college experience … and I hope as a small community we can all come together and choose to keep our at-risk population safer then we did in 2020.”
— McKenna Oleson, Charles City

“I can’t wait to travel, attend live theatre, and spend time in museums again.”
— Linda Brant, Charles City

“To travel anywhere I want via plane or vehicle, to see an amicable exchange of power on Inauguration Day, to attend live concerts, to attend county and state fairs, to eat in a restaurant, to hug my friends, to see teachers get paid what they’re worth, to see acceptance, appreciation, and embracing of racial diversity and for everyone to keep paying it forward.”
— Julie Morton, Charles City