Congratulations! If you're reading this, you've (almost) made it to 2017 alive and relatively unharmed, that deserves celebration! Let's just take a brief minute to look back on 2016 and remind ourselves of how far we've come.
At the start of 2016, we were half paying attention to a presidential race that seemed miles away and a State of Emergency was declared in Flint, Michigan. Off to a great start. Leo finally won his Oscar and the internet simultaneously lost their minds over it. We lost Bowie and we lost Prince, so things were not looking great. Harambe was shot and killed in May and people refuse to stop talking about it meanwhile, our country continues to mourn the 29 killed and 53 injured in the Pulse nightclub shooting. Three presidential debates took place, each progressively worse than the one before it. FBI Director James Comey effectively destroyed the integrity of our election and his reputation by releasing misguiding information about Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump became the President-Elect with Mike Pence by his side. But don't worry, the Cubs won, so really 2016 was a win.
Wow. That was a crazy one, am I right? I feel a little out of breath after typing that. Now, I've only been alive for 19 short years, but 2016 was one of the most insane years of all time. From the #KimExposedTaylorParty to Ted Cruz, the Zodiac Killer, 2016 truly kept us on our toes. The US spent most of it's time focused on the emails of one presidential candidate and the tiny hands of the other. We went from "wow that Onion article really tricked me" in 2015 to "dear God, I hope this is an Onion article" in 2016.
Some of the most ridiculous news headlines included "Suspected Thief Unwittingly Swipes Dog Poo, Gets Caught Brown-Handed" and "Hate Hillary Clinton All You Want, But Not Because of Hot Sauce". At this point I think it might be best to just delete 2016 from the history books. Let's just press that redo button and forget that any of this ever happened. Or we can just pretend it never happened, skip right to 2017 in the textbooks, it's for the best.
One day our grandchildren will ask us about the lost year of 2016. Our eyes will glaze over and we will look off into the distance longingly, "We don't speak of that year, darling, the horrors were too great."
For some reason I have the same feeling in my body as Liesl from the Sound of Music does throughout the film. You know "I am 16 going on 17"? We're not quite as innocent as sweet Liesl, but I think we can agree that we're all excited to be (20)17 now.
Of course I am exaggerating. (Or am I?). But really, what was this mess of a year? We have a talking Cheeto for a president, American Idol is finished, Kim K is off of social media, we started this year with the Zika virus and it got worse from there. There were some good things of course. I mean, I can't name any of them, but I assume that there must be some.
All joking aside, I really hope that 2016 was a lesson for our entire country. We've learned that more than half of our country has felt wronged by our government, so let's make that change. I'm sure that you've grown in ways that you never imagined possible, embrace that. The time has passed for pettiness and passive aggressiveness. I mean this on a nation wide level and in our personal lives. Come to terms with the election, ask yourself how you personally will make a difference in the next four years. Let go of your anger towards that ex of yours, remind yourself of how much you've grown since then. We say this every year but 2017 will be better. Honestly can it get worse? Take responsibility for your future and make 2017 into a year of progress, growth and love. Remember that the voices of young people matter, make yours heard. I know that you have important things to say, so say them.
To wrap it up, looking back on 2016 has left me feeling like Jim Halpert from The Office.
