As she looked back on 2020, Jennifer Taylor’s eyes filled with tears.

They were tears of happiness, she said.

“There were so many things I discovered,” she said on New Year’s Eve, her voice wavering. “I learned to appreciate my relationships.”

Taylor, a Hayden resident who owns a hair salon, said she was amazed by the support of her loved ones and her customers while COVID-19 restrictions affected her business.

“Without my customers, I’d be gone,” she said.

Much of her focus last year was on supporting her kids as they faced changes at school and in other aspects of life.

“It’s brought us closer as a family,” she said.

Taylor’s friend, Katie Huber, moved from Idaho to Georgia and returned to visit family.

“I don’t know what normal is anymore, but I’d like to get back to it,” she said.

She said quarantine forced her to pause and evaluate what matters most to her.

“It’s so important to live in the moment,” she said.

Her mom contracted COVID-19 earlier this year. Though she recovered, her illness made Huber more appreciate of her loved ones.

“After my mom recovered, and it was pretty hairy for a while, all I wanted was for us all to be together and be healthy,” she said.

Taylor said she’s grateful for the challenges that faced her in 2020, both as a business owner and as a person.

“I started to realize what I’m capable of,” she said. “I’m more resilient than I thought I was.”

Coeur d’Alene resident Dorothy Clark said the pandemic itself didn’t cast the biggest cloud over her year.

“We’ve experienced more personal tragedies than this,” said Clark, who has lived in Idaho with her husband since 1989.

She knows several people who have died due to COVID-19. Still, she said the restrictions put in place help slow the spread of the virus were the most painful part of 2020 for her.

“It seemed like control,” she said. “We don’t like being told what to do.”

Though she is in a vulnerable age group, Clark said she hopes restrictions are lifted in 2021.

Post Falls resident Geoff Groff said he was less impacted by COVID-19 and the associated restrictions in 2020 than he might’ve been in previous years. He was a student last year, enrolling in the industrial mechanic/millwright program at North Idaho College.

“I was tired of working dead-end jobs,” he said.

NIC put safety protocols in place to help protect students from the virus, he said. Masks were required in class.

Meanwhile, Groff shopped and ran errands for his parents, who are older, to help protect them from COVID-19.

“That stressed me out,” he said. “A lot of people don’t like to wear a mask around here.”

Evan Johnson, a 24-year-old Coeur d’Alene resident who’s also studying to become an industrial mechanic, said the pandemic forced him to change his lifestyle.

“It makes it hard to be young,” he said.

As he continues his education in 2021, Johnson said he hopes the world stabilizes.

“I’m looking forward to the vaccine so things can go back to normal,” he said.

Above all, Groff said, living through a pandemic has taught him about patience. It’s a virtue he plans to take with him, into 2021 and beyond — and he hopes others will, too.

“Be more patient with each other,” he said. “We’re all human beings.”