DAYTON — This year has been a year like no other.

From the presidential election to the pandemic and beyond, so many occurrences have led to many lessons learned this year.

But for Dayton, 2020 was a compounding of back-to-back bad years.

Last year, was a year marred with tragedy, from the Memorial Day tornadoes to the Oregon District mass shooting.

It was one thing after another.

What You Need To Know

  • Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley says the two biggest lessons she learned this year are of patience and grace

  • She’s looking forward to life as we knew it before the pandemic

  • After two consecutive hard years for Dayton, Whaley is encouraging residents to stay optimistic

Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said 2020 was supposed to be a bounce-back year for Dayton but the coronavirus halted those plans.

“The past two years have been incredibly tough for Dayton,” Whaley said. “And so I think it’s just continuing to learn to live with whatever life throws at you. And I think that’s what our community has done and that’s what I continue to do in my personal life, too.”

But through the hardships 2020 has presented, Whaley said she was able to learn some valuable life lessons and find silver linings.

She said the biggest lessons learned were patience and grace.

“Of patience,” she said. “That you have to do things differently and learning to be patient with myself, and patient with the people who work at City Hall and patience with the city. One of the things I really tried to talk about all year long is how we have to give each other grace. And you know I was probably doing a lot of self-talking while saying that, right? I mean, really giving people the grace because we’re going to make a lot of mistakes in this kind of new life we lived in 2020. So definitely, that’s something I learned this year.”

Whaley said there are lots of people, especially in Dayton, who are looking to leave 2020 in the rear-view mirror.

Personally, she said the thing she’s looking forward to the most is getting back to life as we knew it before the pandemic.

“I can’t wait,” she said. “It’ll take a little bit of 21, but I am looking so forward to human interaction, getting the vaccine and getting to hug my parents.”

She said one of the top focuses for the city of Dayton is finding a way to get the local economy back on track.

“I think there will be a lot of celebrations in 2021,” she said. “... Celebrating our community and celebrating each other and celebrating while having dinner or a drink at one of our locally owned businesses. I think that’s really what’s going to be key.”

She said while 2020 was a very sad year, where people may have lost loved ones or their jobs, there is reason to be optimistic moving forward.

“We’ve been through a really tough two years and can’t wait to get to this next year and hopefully, fingers crossed, it will be an amazing year both for Dayton and the entire world,” Whaley said.