It feels like we can finally see that light at the end of the tunnel, and no, it’s not a train. It’s our normal life, beckoning to us – at least, whatever normal will be with a COVID-19 vaccine in place.

We only get there, however, if people get the vaccine as it becomes available to them.

My mother, a teacher in Tennessee, became eligible for the vaccine recently and has already gotten her first dose. My husband’s grandparents, older than 75, have also received the first round of the vaccine.

Young, ostensibly healthy people like me aren’t eligible yet, but when we are, you know what I’m going to do?

I’m going to take the next step toward the end of the tunnel, back into the light. I’m going to get that vaccine.

I know it’s new. I know there have been allergic reactions, and I know the vaccine could cause future problems or complications we just have no way of knowing about yet.

That’s always the case with innovation.

We can’t let that stop us.

For almost a year now we have dealt with the restrictions and fallout of a global pandemic the likes of which we have never before experienced, except for those few who were infants in the time of the Spanish influenza.

We’ve stayed home, social distanced, worn masks and practically bathed in hand sanitizer.

We’re tired of it. We want our normal lives back.

This is how we accomplish it: taking a vaccine to stop the spread of the virus.

I lost my grandfather to COVID-19 just after Thanksgiving. It was and is one of the most heartbreaking things I have gone through. It took him so fast – despite his relative good health prior to contracting it.

I don’t want to lose anyone else I love to this insidious disease.

Please, please, let’s all trust the medical research and get the vaccine. Let’s not fall victim to the virus nor to the vaccine conspiracy theories.

Let’s do our part to take that next step back to normal.