That’s when the real fun starts. Now that the Trump administration has ordered another 100 million doses of vaccine from Pfizer, it may be possible to achieve something like herd immunity by summer, with everyone who wants a vaccine able to get it. There are even tantalizing signs that we may not need two shots of the two approved vaccines after all, greatly diminishing the amount of time it could take to get it to all of us. While that will still leave too many COVID truthers out there at risk of getting and spreading the virus, the rest of us are going to start making up for lost time. Remember all of the times you’ve played the “When this is over” game with your friends and family? We’re almost there.

We’re going to party down at the weddings that were canceled when the pandemic descended upon us, as well as the graduation parties and family reunions and music festivals and the slew of holiday celebrations that sensible people put off. The bleachers of sports stadiums will once again be full of fans downing hot dogs and beers and shouting at the top of their lungs without worrying about spraying pestilential saliva all over their friends.

And yes, the funerals too. So many of us have lost a loved one this year, and 2021 offers us the promise of real, in-person memorials to properly pay tribute to the lives snuffed out, both from COVID-19 and the normal churn of the human life cycle. But we will also toast to those who made it — the retired parents and grandparents, the immunocompromised friends, those who were infected but survived, as well as those close to us whose mental health has deteriorated during these awful months for whom the resumption of normalcy will serve as a critical lifeline.