There are a lot of articles, posts and memes going around on the inter-webs right now about 2016—specifically how it sucked. The new year has just begun, and as we look forward into the year that is ahead of us, we also look back on the year that is now behind us, good 'ol 2016. And while some people choose to be pessimistic and proclaim it the worst year yet, I believe that we should look at the good things, the things that 2016 accomplished.

Do we want to be remembered as the generation who is always looking for the bad and never for the good? Granted, we are millennials; we bring about change. But part of the process of bringing about change is to rejoice in the success of the change, not to over look that success with the next negative reaction or project to work on. And while there's a time to sit back and look at all of the things that need to be changed in our world, I'm arguing that the turn of the New Year should be a time of celebration, of hope. With hope we can work together to change the things that we did not achieve in 2016, while with pessimism we cannot change anything.

So, 2016. You were not what we expected, that's for sure. But despite your imperfections, you still have things to celebrate, just like each one of us.

The Cubs won the World Series. The Catholic and Orthodox religious leaders met for the first time since the Great Schism. Harriet Tubman will appear on the American $20 bill. American athletes excelled in the Rio 2016 Olympics. Michelle Obama did Carpool Karaoke. Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar! Not only all of these fantastic events happened, but a lot of other great things too—check out these 99 stats to be blown away.

So, while not everyone may find favor with 2016, let's remember that even though it's easy to be negative, 2016 really wasn't that bad. A lot of great things happened in the past 365 days, and it would be a misfortune to over look the successes of mankind during this past year.