LIVERMORE FALLS — New Years Day has come and gone — 2022 is here to stay. Locals walking the streets of Livermore Falls reflected on the ups and downs of 2021 and looked forward to 2022 not only with personal resolutions, but hopes for a world with brighter days.

Twenty-twenty-one was a year of COVID-19 chaos and political unrest. But Owen Dow, a senior at Spruce Mountain High School, looks back on the year as one filled with adventures.

Dow finished his last season of high school football in 2021; he was surprised by a visit with his brother, who enlisted in the Navy; he went camping.

Dow, a canner at Berry Fruit Farms, envisions 2022 filled with endings and new beginnings: he plans to graduate high school and find a college that suits him; he wants to take a trip to Washington D.C; he’d “like to make more money.”

Most of all, Dow hopes to “not get drafted” — a nod to his concerns about what the future of America holds.

As a whole, Dow views 2021 as a return to some semblance of balance and normalcy for the world.

“I was hoping that [2021] wasn’t like 2020,” Dow said of the beginning of last year. “Many things have died down. And … life’s kind of kick started to come back to actually being normal.”

He believes that there was “a lot less craziness this past year.” This reporter posed that perhaps we simply “got used to the craziness.”

“That’s true,” he agreed.

On the flip side, Corey Schmidt — who works at Pallet One, Inc. in Livermore Falls — “didn’t do much because of COVID.”

Schmidt was happy to say that he “stayed working” in 2021. He believes he is “lucky” for that. Schmidt’s good fortune is certainly true, and perhaps not universal.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, around 6.9 million people were unemployed by the end of November 2021 — about 1.2 million people more than before the pandemic began. Luckily, that figure of unemployment has significantly decreased since its drastic incline in unemployment rates from March to May 2020 (in comparison, around 23.1 million people were unemployed in April 2020).

“[2021] was alright, besides the COVID stuff,” Schmidt.

The dullness of 2021 did give Schmidt time to embrace his hobby as “an avid movie collector.”

The Carbona family, of Wilton, does not really believe that 2021 was better than 2020.

“2021 was tougher than 2020,” said Doreen Carbona. “I just feel like this whole COVID thing is never going to end.”

Additionally, the Carbonas’ eldest son got deployed. This has been hard for them, they said.

The Carbonas did feel grateful that they were able to gather with family — which felt impossible in 2020.

The Carbonas also hope for unity and “compromise” among the country’s politicians.

“I want less tension,” Isaac (Doreen and Ray’s son) said.

“[I want] those in high positions to be able to work things out with each other whether it’s compromise,” Ray Carbona added. “They should at least see what’s in front of them and address what needs to be addressed.”

For Isaac, his ultimate hope is a bit simpler put (though not necessarily any less complex than unity among politicians): “I just want to see people’s faces,” he said.

Descriptions of 2021, which this reporter asked them to limit to one to three words, vary.

Dow summarizes his 2021 as “adventurous.”

On the other hand, Schmidt describes 2021 as “long” with “illness and sickness.”

The Carbonas agree.

“I’d say it was challenging,” Ray said.

“It was a drag,” Isaac agreed.

“Tougher,” Doreen added.

Quite optimistically, all hold the same wishes for a brighter, harmonious future in 2022.

“I want more peace and love,” Doreen said. “We’re looking for more positivity and happiness.”

Schmidt hopes that 2022 has “an end to COVID.”

“Hopefully things will turn around,” he said.

As for New Years’ resolutions, few had any on the books.

Doreen Carbona was the only one of her family with plans. She’s set up a gym membership and wishes for travel plans to “someplace warmer” — perhaps, the usual New Years plans so many make.

Schmidt, on the other hand, has no interest in resolutions.

“I don’t make resolutions anymore,” Schmidt said. “If you don’t make them, you don’t break them.”