An Instagram post from professional mountain biker Kate Courtney recently caught my attention. Known for her love of chocolate chip cookies, Courtney compared 2020—with all its letdowns and difficulties—to “oatmeal raisin. With no chocolate chips. Honestly maybe it would be a scone.” 

As someone who enjoys scones—and oatmeal raisin cookies, for that matter, although I concede chocolate chip’s superiority—I felt like the analogy was a little harsh. Why are scones supposed to take all the blame for this year’s mess? But I’m not here to start a cookie versus scone debate. I’m here to ask an important question: If 2020 were a food, what would it be?

So far, 2020 has been like ordering French toast and receiving gruel. It’s a meal with potential that goes unrealized. 2020 has either been seriously burnt or tragically underbaked, depending on your perspective. Or maybe you’re an optimist and think that this year has simply not had enough time to show its worth—a Thanksgiving turkey that needs a good long time to cook. “It’s chicken and waffles,” says junior Chuck Jones. “It doesn’t seem like it’s gonna be good, but it could be good and it probably will be good.” I applaud his positivity, but most people I spoke to aren’t feeling so generous. “It’s more like a peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwich,” junior Beckett McVoy counters. Other students compared 2020 to teriyaki chicken, lima beans and green peas. “Green peas never deliver,” junior Chloe Fraser says, and so far, this year hasn’t either.

When I told students that Courtney had compared 2020 to a scone, most were quick to defend the staple of England’s afternoon tea tradition. Scones are slightly crusty, a little outdated, overhyped by aristocrats, but not a stand-in for a pandemic! Although, to be fair, scones tend to be worse in America, just like COVID. 

It’s clear that sentencing one food to represent 2020 is a highly personal decision. Maybe you agree with senior Luke Kreidl when he says “a few years ago we dropped a hot dog and it rolled under the oven, and then in 2020 we found the hot dog,” or maybe your year has only been slightly sub-par—something boring but unoffensive, like wheat bread. “‘Life is like a box of chocolates,’” senior Eliza Anderson quotes to me. “‘You never know what you’re gonna get.’” Whatever it is, I think we can all agree that so far, 2020 has not been what we ordered.