Every year, Google makes a video that takes video clips from major things that were searched within a year to summarize that year. The reason I think it’s worthy of watching is because, in our society, the things we take the time to google are the things we actually care to know. 2017 has been a long one, though. People took 2016 and realized that in order to get through everything that the world throws at us, we would have to be vocal together.

We spread #MeToo until it was viral, which shed light on just how many females have felt victimized. We searched “how to make a protest sign,” because this year more than ever, we protested what we believed to be wrong. We sought out information we didn’t know we would ever need to know; like how to board up windows in a hurricane, or how to calm a dog after a storm. We asked “how do wildfires start?” and “how far can North Korean missiles go?” because the world is terrified. People are becoming more scared of the future than we’ve been in a long time.

But I would be remiss to talk about the doom and gloom of 2017 if I didn’t recognize how it caused people rise to the occasion! After each one of the terrible humanitarian crises or natural disasters, people wanted to know how they could help. We searched things like “how to help Syria,” “how to help refugees,” and “how to help Puerto Rico." We didn’t take any of the terrible things that happened this year lying down. When something happened, we either helped out in order to fix the problem, or protested. We donated to the Red Cross and the International Women's Day March was awe-inspiring!

I’m not saying this year was the best or the worst, but what I am saying is that when something bad happened somewhere, we didn’t let it defeat us. Instead, we all tried to help each other out. Americans faced the burden of the Las Vegas shooting together, but we also watched the eclipse together. People decided that if this year was going to beat them down they were going to love everyone, so we searched things like “how to be a good parent," “how to be a strong woman,” and “how to make a difference."

I don’t know what 2018 will bring, and I don’t know how the U.S. will react, but I know that the most evocative search this year was definitely “how to make a difference." As long as we keep searching for ways to make make it out of crap, I think we will be OK together. 2018 might be the year that we all figure out how to live on an alternate planet, or it might be the year that cats take over the internet in a way we never could have imagined. Either way, keep searching.

P.S. here’s the link to google’s video; watch it: https://youtu.be/vI4LHl4yFuo