Let’s face it, 2016 has been a shit year.

Whether it’s on a global scale or a personal level, nobody can seem to catch a break. The hits just keep coming. It’s like 2016 was the year the world chose to open its maw and reveal a collection of razor sharp teeth, kept pristine and pearly white, all for the sake of tearing us apart. Honestly, though, 2015 felt kind of similar.

And so did 2014, 2013 and every subsequent year before that. The stakes just go a little higher each time. So I think this disaster, this impending sense of doom and never-ending catastrophe, is really just a symptom of our age. With each passing year, we start to notice new things. We’re more acutely aware of our circumstances and our surroundings. We know we’re not kids anymore.

People trust that they can tell us now when things are going wrong. That we can be left to our own devices with no censorship. That we can bear witness to awful things like hate and terror. There’s nothing anyone can do to shield us from it anymore. We’re too old for that. We need to know these things are going on, because this is our world, too.

It’s a world whose weight is hard to carry. Optimism is a challenge, and so is getting out of bed some days. We don’t all have the strength, at least not all the time, to try and be positive in the face of everything going wrong; and I don’t blame people who want to quit, literally or figuratively.

Because maybe it would just be easier to quit. To move to a cabin, somewhere in the remote Alaskan wilderness, and never speak to humanity, never share in its agony or sadness again. I like the sound of that. Of freedom and isolation. But if I left now, I would miss Thanksgiving. I would miss my family and every chance I have to still be thankful in 2016, because even when this year was at it’s worst, I still found reasons to smile.

In 2016, I fell in love. I watched my nephew and nieces turn another year older. I saw my parents and siblings celebrate another anniversary. I got to travel halfway around the world and study abroad in Ireland. I got to try new foods and meet new friends. I got to find my passion in the people and places around me and there’s still so much I haven’t said. There’s still so much I have to do and see. I can’t remove myself from the world.

Not now, not ever. 2016 has been a shit year, sure. I know I said that earlier. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t had it’s good moments. It’s still given me plenty of reasons to be grateful, and that thankfulness is what’s going to get me through New Year’s, 2017, 2018 and every year after that. I know the world is going to keep trying to knock us down, and it’s okay to stay down. You just can’t unpack there.

You have to get up, you have to move forward. Show the world that you too have teeth too and bite back. Find reasons to be thankful. 2016 has nothing on you.