Dear 2016,
I am not entirely sure why you turned out the way that you did, but all I can say is yikes. So many things have happened over the course of the year that I’ve started to wonder whether someone put a curse on you, or if we once again misinterpreted the Mayan doomsday date. We lost many great souls, the most recent of which being wonderful people like Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, and Cyril DeGrasse Tyson. We also had a multitude of protests, airstrikes, countries breaking away from unions, and many other terrible, life-altering changes to the world around us. However, it has not been completely bad.
This is the year that I turned 21, an age that younger me never thought I would live to see. This is also the year that I put my foot down and stopped letting an extremely toxic person rule my life, and the year that I started dating my best friend of six years. I also started writing for Odyssey, which has been a wonderful experience so far. In addition to all these things, there have been tons of great movies, songs, games, and artworks that have come out of this year. It always makes me happy when people that I follow on social media produce these beautiful works of art just because they can and they want to. They have no obligation to do it-- it just makes them happy. And this year, we could all use a little more happiness.
People have also started being kinder to one another. The other morning, when my mom and I went to get breakfast, we discovered that the person ahead of us had paid for our meal, so we in turn paid for the people behind us. It was a very kind gesture from a person we didn’t even know. I’ve also witnessed many people giving out more confidence, girls lifting other girls up instead of tearing them down, and even gender barriers being ever so slowly broken down. I have never felt more comfortable to be who I am, because I know that there is a multitude of people who would stick up for me should anyone try to put me down, and I know I would do the same thing for them.
2016, I’m not entirely sure who placed this curse on you and made you turn out to be a devil year, but I will most certainly be glad when you are over. I cannot wait to start off with a fresh slate. I feel that in the future, we will look back upon you with all sorts of mixed feelings, good and bad and everything in between, but we cannot erase you from our history. You are, for me at least, a turning point-- a very pivotal year in my life which I won’t be forgetting for a very long time. I will not say that it was nice knowing you, 2016, as it has been fairly unpleasant, but you at least gave me chances I may never have gotten otherwise. It’s time to put this year to rest.
Here’s to the New Year!
