2016 is almost over. It's hard to believe because the year went so fast, but it is true. While every year has downsides, 2016 seemed to have much more than previous years. It's always great to focus on the positive, but the negatives of 2016 need to be acknowledged too.

One reason 2016 has been, let's just say an "interesting" year is because of the Presidential Election. Being an Odyssey writer, the election gave us writers pure gold content! We could write about the hilarious SNL skits that made us feel like everything was going to be okay. Or we could write about our true feelings about who will be our next President-elect. It was a scary time, but it was also a great time for Odyssey content creators.

One of the big downsides of 2016 was on election night. Well, this is all my opinion. Some might have thought that this moment was a highlight! But for me, my college had an election night party. I was busy doing homework in the computer lab.

I could hear through the glass screen doors what was happening on election night. It wasn't until that next morning that I found out Donald Trump was going to be our next President. It felt like a nightmare. That would have been the best case scenario! It felt as if a boulder had struck me right in the face. Is this a bad dream? No, I had to face reality and I had to start preparing myself for the next four to eight years.

Some more personal downsides of 2016 for me are that I auditioned for an improv troupe that I really wanted to get into, but I did not get in. I understand that that's just the way of acting/auditioning. I was glad to hear that I can try out again next year! That's the only personal downside I can think of. In that case, for me when thinking about only personal issues, 2016 has been a decent year! But there are much more important issues at hand that happened in the world.

A downside of 2016 is David Bowie's death. David Bowie was a fantastic musician. One song that I especially love by him is Don't You Forget About Me. I remember watching the classic movie The Breakfast Club. That is when I heard that song and I instantly loved it. I don't know much about David Bowie, but I do know he was also an actor; he was in a lot of movies such as Labyrinth, The Hunger, and, The Man Who Fell to Earth. David Bowie, you are missed dearly.

There were many terrorist attacks that occurred this year. One was the airport attack in Istanbul. 36 people died in that airport because a bomb went off. It would be so cruel of me to just list all of the attacks that happened in 2016; that would take away all the emotion. No terrorist attacks should happen. Also, I prefer to focus on the positive. But, just to list the statistics, there was a total of 1,744 terrorist attacks in 2016. There were also 15,686 deaths. That should not happen. It's terrifying and sickening.

Where do we go from here? It's hard to know. All I can say is my goal for 2017 is to spread kindness and to help the world in the best way that I can. I encourage you to do the same.