What is that old Chinese proverb? May you live in interesting times? You can’t get much more … uh, “interesting,” than the last 12 months.

“I never thought – never thought – we’d be going through what we’re going through now,” says Randy Smith who, along with his wife, Angela, lives in the Belews Creek area of northeast Forsyth County.

Randy and Angela are two of the eight people we are following as they navigate the pandemic. We call it “Project 2021.”

Both of them have day jobs but both work most Saturday nights at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem. Angela is one of the scoring officials and for the last 10 years, Randy has been the flagman.

“I love it, I love it,” Randy says. “It’s like I’m standing in front of 17,000 people and wave that green flag. How cool is that?”

But worries about the pandemic have infiltrated much of their lives. Randy recently ordered some items that had to be shipped from China and, as the box was in transit:

“I watched it come in through New York and I watched it sit there and I watched it get delivered and, when it got delivered to my house, I didn’t even touch it,” he said.

They hope things get better but ask them what life will be like by the end of this year …

“It’s hard to say and it’s scary, too,” says Angela.

Meet them both in this edition of Project 2021.

Click here for Part 1 of Project 2021.