It’s been a long year for the travel industry.

I had high hopes for 2020 travel. I came into the year with a checklist of countries I wanted to visit. From the vast mountainous regions of the Dolomites, to the sub-saharan African desert, to the unknowns of Antarctica, 2020 was supposed to be a year filled with adventure unlike my previous trips.

Then, the pandemic happened. The unprecedented impact of COVID-19 began to trickle down through each level of society. The travel industry in particular was one of the first and hardest-hit by the pandemic. Countries all over the world closed their borders, as billions of people around the world were placed under lockdown to curb the spread of this pandemic. The majority of businesses all ground to a halt. My family’s business, which operates in various airports along the east coast of the United States, was forced to temporarily close. The outlook for the industry I’m most passionate about suddenly became extremely uncertain.