Dear 2016,

First of all, not to be pessimistic, but I'm pretty glad to see you go. Looking at a news standpoint, not a lot of positive things happened - we had one of the worst elections in American history, the UK voted "leave" on the Brexit Referendum, hundreds of terror attacks throughout the world and now there is a massacre in Aleppo. We've lost Gene Wilder, Prince, David Bowie, Harper Lee, Arnold Palmer and Muhammad Ali, among countless other legends.

The economy's been volatile, and we haven't solved nearly as many world issues as we have probably created. Millions of people are still dying senselessly. Millions of people do not have homes and live in the shadow of the extremely wealthy. Sexism and racism continues to impede millions of brilliant, possibly world-changing individuals.

But could we really ask to change all of that in a year? Of course not. And while I'm glad to kiss the year goodbye and move into a new year (2017!), everything certainly hasn't been all bad.

And really, I guess, I should be saying thank you, 2016. You've taught all of us extremely valuable lessons. You've given each of us people in our lives that have wronged us, broken our trust and hurt us badly, but you've also introduced new friends to us that have lifted us up and inspired us to be our best. You've taken things from us that we thought we'd rather die than lose, ripping them right out of our hands and our hearts and leaving us to cry about them, but you've also given us new things, more beautiful and exciting than we ever could have imagined. You've opened doors for us that we didn't ever even know were existent.

You've given us new knowledge, whether it be factual or logical, and that knowledge has made us smarter and more mature as people. You've put us in uncomfortable situations that have grown us as people, albeit hesitantly, and you have made sure that we've learned from every bad situation that has come about.

You've taken our feet to new streets, given our eyes new sights and fed our minds with new opinions, either favorable or unfavorable. In these places have waited moments that have made us fall in love with living and moments that have made us crash to our knees and cry.

2016, you have been one of the hardest years that I have lived so far. I have struggled with so many daily tasks that have previously been second nature, and I have questioned the person that I am and who I would like to be almost every night. You've made me challenge my own goals, doubt the most certain parts of my life and filled me with anxiety about more random things than any other year past.

Yet you've also helped me overcome some of my hangups, become a better and more mature person and to experience more of life in its pure, raw form - messy yet beautiful. You've shown me beautiful sunsets to show me that even the worst days can end positively, and you've shown me beautiful sunrises to show me that, after the most ugly days, the sun not only rises again but renews and redeems herself.

Although I would never relive you if I had the unlimited ability to do so, not even to right some of the wrongs that have occurred, I am thankful for your presence and your influence in the person who I am. Sitting here, in my bed, in the early morning of a mid-December Sunday, drinking coffee and petting my dog with my toes, I can say confidently that I am not close to the person who I was in January, and I am not close to the person that I could have predicted that I would be. You've thrown me some real curveballs. But I'm proud to say that, not only have I overcome every one of them, I have become better at hitting them on my own.

Thank you for everything, 2016. It's been real.