This year, we have so much to look back on. Leonardo Dicaprio finally won an Oscar. The Stanford Swimmer showed us the true meaning of white privileged rape culture. According to the Gun Violence Archive online, over 14,000 people were killed by mass shootings. Prince, David Bowie, Carrie Fisher and Alan Rickman passed away. Donald Trump 'won' the election for the President of the United States. Amidst all this, a weird collection of fads developed, such as dabbing and bottle flipping. 2016 was a long, hard year, with so much going on around us and, at the same time, absolutely nothing at all.
I don't feel particularly elated when I look back on this year. I've had better, I've had worse. I feel like so much happened, and I missed it. I woke up from a long nap with a stream of great distracting dreams and I'm in a whole different world now. We've lost such great artists, allowed a bigot to become president, and let down hundreds of thousands of refugees. I felt much more uplifted when 2016 started, and way less lost.
As I shift through everyone's facebook statements, I notice a popular phenomena has developed. For the last few weeks, with each additional depressing piece of news, we seem to blame '2016' as a whole, and as a joke- Basically, in a "Thanks, Obama." Kind of way.
Of course I understand this is a joke. I get the need for everyone to put all of this darkness behind us and just rush into the next step. And I'm taking the joke- I've made it myself a few times. But I'd like to stop and, instead of rushing to put everything in the past, use the past to better the future.
The year 2016 didn't elect Trump. We did. We allowed the election to divide us. Instead of working together to educate and understand one another, we caused tensions to run deeper, and elected a dismissive reality tv star. We abandoned all our attempts to debate fairly. Each political side screamed over the other until we thought our point was the only one that couldve possibly been heard. We cancelled each other out, and we will pay for it in magnitude. 2016 did not elect trump. Our pride did.
The year 2016 didn't kill all of these celebrities. That was alcoholism, drug addiction, cancer. Granted, I know that you all know that. But don't you think it's a little insensitive to apply a popular joke to someone's death? I'm seeing so many people share Carrie Fisher's obituary with nothing but the statemant of "OMG 2016 you better STOP." Meanwhile, I remember staying up late with my sister and watching all 6 Star Wars movies. I remember looking into Carrie Fisher's life when I learned about my own mental illness. I considered her to be a role model, not just despite her weaknesses, but because of her weaknesses. Carrie wasn't just a celebrity, she was a human. These people were PEOPLE. They have families and friends and careers- That's why we love them so much. Someone we claim to admire has passed away, so our generation emotes by sharing an article and reiterating the same banter as the last supposedly unattached person. Let's not ignore the actual tragedy that occured, and why it happened. The more we desensitize ourselves from death, and what actually causes it, the worse all of these problems will become.
The year 2016 didn't make us all feel the way we do. Our own unending dismissiveness did that for us. If we taught ourselves to be more thoughtful, more self aware, maybe next year could be better. Maybe if we just chose to try to understand one another, and give everyone the benefit of the doubt, we really could make the world a better place.
I'm guilty of being too lazy this year. I keep letting my dreams slip out from under me. I repeatedly tell myself that my mental illness has gone away, just because I feel better for a little while. But it always comes back. I know what my bad habits are, and I think that just because I'm not sitting on rock bottom anymore, that that's good enough. I've been pushing myself to be more aware, and more proactive, and so far, I've had really good results 2016 was honestly overall a pretty great year for me personally, despite allowing myself to fall back. I think that's why I got lazy- I was having too much fun. But I'm just as dismissive as everyone else.
Of course, I can only speak for me. But 2016 sucked, from most angles. Granted, arts of 2016 will be hard to let go of. Entering 2017 means we have to say goodbye to Obama, and hello to a higher tuition. It means that we cant blame our problems on 2016 any longer. Everywhere I look, someones ready to leap into 2017. So pause and look back. What did you miss?
