I imagine every writer that is forced to write a final article for the year of 2016 is digging through their old files or typing random assortment of words about Christmas or New Years. I decided to do something that everyone is starting to do: reflect on the last year.
Most people are writing about how bad this year has been. Yes, Donald Trump is going to be our president in 2017. Yes, Hillary Clinton won more votes but because of a system designed to curb democracy, she didn’t win the presidency. Yes, Brexit happened. Yes, the Earth has had its warmest year and people are still saying Climate Change isn’t real.
But for once in the history of reflections of the news this year, I am going to be positive. We all need positivity right now when we are spending time with family or seeing old friends.
So what are some good things that have happened? Bernie Sanders is back! Well...he never really left. Whenever I turn on the news, I smile when I hear his soothing Brooklyn accent. He even released a book!
David Bowie released his final album in January. Panic! at the Disco, Rihanna, Sia, Kanye West, Chance the Rapper, ZAYN, Weezer, Beyonce, Blink-182, Travis Scott, Green Day, Sum 41, Frank Ocean, Onerepublic, The Weeknd, Childish Gambino, J. Cole all released music this year.
Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar, thus ridding the internet of certain stupid memes. Speaking of memes, while some memes got classified as white supremacist, others made us all laugh.
SNL had its work cut out for it this year. But besides the election skits, they managed to produce some truly wonderful original content.
Pokemon Go allowed people to relive their childhood (and also look like complete morons in public). But nonetheless the app encouraged people to spend time outside.
Two new Harry Potter books came out...kinda.
American Olympic athletes brought home 121 medals!
Virtual Reality is starting to become mainstream. I can already see the wonderful possibilities VR can bring to those who can’t travel or to those of us that want to visit the world in our living rooms.
Bob Dylan won The Nobel Prize of Literature.
The Paris Agreement was signed.
Now this is not a comprehensive record of all the great things that have happened in 2016. I could have written an article about how my 2016 was but I decided that no one needs to hear about my year. People need to hear about their year. Our year to be exact.
2016 has been a horrible year for a variety of reasons but we need to remember something: we are still here. We may have lost artists we loved, seen our choice for president lose, or even felt a loss that was more personal, but we are moving on. We are going into 2017 with the knowledge of how a year should not be. And with that knowledge, we can make 2017 to be a better year for all of us.
