As this year comes to a close, many people have stated that this year has been the worst. It’s utterly crazy how fast this year went by in a blink of an eye. I agree for the most part that this year was bad, but that doesn’t mean nothing good has come of this year. People always tend to look at the bad side, not the bright side. Something good always comes out of something bad. So if this was a bad year, let’s hope that the next year is better. We don’t know what’s going to happen next year especially with Donald Trump as the upcoming President of the United States. At this point, we could literally expect anything and everything. We should hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. In this spirit of uncertainty, I just want to list 25 good things that happened this year:

1. Thanks to the ice bucket challenge the gene responsible for ALS has been found, meaning scientists are closer to an effective treatment.
2. The tiger and panda population is growing.
3. California is now powering over 6 million homes with solar power which is a record in the United States.
4. Volunteers in India planted 50 million trees in 24 hours.
5. Surprisingly, world crime as a whole has drastically declined in the last couple of decades.
6. Coffee consumption has been proved to help reduce cancer and suicide rates.
7. Dentists are once again providing free care to veterans who need it.
8. Death by heart disease has decreased by 70% in the United States.
9. Two brothers saw color for the first time thanks to specially-designed glasses.
10. Portugal ran its entire nation solely on renewable energy for four days straight.
11. Harriet Tubman is going to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.
12. Bank firm pays college tuition for the children of the employees who died in the 9/11 attacks.
13. A 4-year old befriends a lonely man and helped him heal after losing his wife.
14. Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an oscar! He got the recognition he deserved!
15. Finding Dory came out after 13 years of anticipation.
16. Scientists figured out a way to link robotic limbs with the part of the brain that deals with movement so that people don’t have to think about how they want to move the limb, it will just happen.
17. A new therapy developed in Israel could cure radiation sickness.
18. 200 strangers attended the funeral of a homeless WW2 veteran with no family.
19. A teen battling cancer married his sweetheart.
20. Toys R Us offered quiet shopping hour for kids with autism this holiday season.
21. Families grew.
22. People survived cancer.
23. People survived depression.
24. This sweet father gave candy to passengers on a flight so his little girl could trick or treat on Halloween.
25. Child mortality is down everywhere and it keeps going down.

YAY for 2016!