Wow, what a year — but we've made it through. Google's annual year-in-search [1] video reminds us of everything that filled our hearts and minds in 2020. And although it certainly wasn't a smooth ride, this year showed us the resilience of humanity, that empathy does exist, and with it we are so much stronger together.

This year started out like a series of unfortunate events — Australia [2]'s wildfires, the loss of NBA legend Kobe Bryant [3], and then COVID-19 [4] totally upended our lives. While in isolation, we became more curious, more critical, and more compassionate about our world and communities. We marched for the Black Lives Matter [5] movement, we supported our healthcare workers [6], and despite not being able to see many of our friends and family, we still found joy in celebrating milestone events like weddings, birthdays [7], and graduations [8] in unique ways. We've had to say a lot of goodbyes this year to people like Chadwick Boseman [9], Ruth Bader Ginsburg [10], and the millions of lives lost to the coronavirus; but if there's one silver lining in this all, it's that we found empathy and we demanded transparency and the protection of human rights, our environment [11], and our holistic health.

Watch Google's 2020 year-in-search video, and let's hope that the humanity we found together will pave the way for a healthier future.