Person of the Year 2021

     It is that time once again! Ok it is well past 2 weeks past time! Time to choose the Holabird Advocate Media Person of the Year. It took a while to select this person because I was leaning toward giving the "honor" if you could call it that to Kyle Rittenhouse. It was ultimately decided to not put him back in the spotlight since at present he has crawled away from public scrutiny. And now that Time has chosen Elon Musk as their Person of the Year, I'd better get this going!

     So who gets the "honor"? Remembering that "person" does not always mean proper name, I chose to give the title to the person who got vaccinated for Corona. It was last December when Pfizer's Vaccine was approved for emergency use so chances are if you got the jab-it was in 2021!

     In the interest of full disclosure-I am currently fully vaccinated. The decision to do so was fairly easy to come by. Like many of you when news of Pfizer's vaccine came the first thing I thought of was that I could finally burn that cussed face mask! Of course I knew I had to wait my turn, but I could actually see light at the end of the tunnel here!

     Then along came Moderna, then the J&J vaccine. As nice as it was to have choices, I was uncertain which one was the best choice for me. My dislike of a possible 2nd shot caused me to favor J&J's one and done vaccine. As it turns out, it didn't quite work that way. I let it be known that I was holding out for J&J and my friend and Wesleyan Brother, Dr. Jason Lanning MD advised me to get whatever shot that was offered to me and as soon as possible. 

    My parents, being well over 60 years of age were ahead of me in line. My dad's only reluctance was getting ahead of first responders and teachers. The people at Avera assured him that all such folks had plenty of opportunity to get the shot and to get in line himself. Once done it seems all I could think about was getting me in line. I got a call from Avera wanting me to go to Mitchell to get shot. I managed to get an appointment at St. Mary's in Pierre 2pm on April 1-April Fools Day(you can't make this stuff up folks)

     Long story short-I got the jab. Then came my 2nd dose on April 21 at 11:15am. There were some hiccups along the way-but I got it done. I even got a booster shot on November 30 at 11am as well. No regrets at all. I've heard all these crazy stories. The "friend of a cousin's neighbor" and all, I even had someone tell me that If I got the shot I'd be dead in 3 years. I countered that 3 years was longer than Corona gave Charley Pride. Either way I'm glad I made the decision. I hope those of you who got vaccinated can say the same. YOU ROCK! Congrats to all of you who were able to do that. There is still time! God be with you and do the best you can!