Without a doubt, this year has been the worst – for me, for the country, and for the world. Twenty-Sixteen has been the most stressful, heartbreaking, exhausting year yet, and I’m ready to pop some champagne/sparkling grape juice on December 31st. Even though the oh-so-festive season of Christmas is yet to pass, I think it’s time to appreciate just how important New Year’s is – especially to me.
Not enough people truly realize how much New Year’s does. It’s a fresh start, a reset all, a saving grace. New Year’s comes right after a stressful time – Christmas. It offers a period of relaxation and recollection before you begin your everyday life again. On December 31st, you get to celebrate your perseverance through the year you’ve endured. Personally, the incoming of this new year is going to be a relief. I get to kiss hello a fresh start with just a slight awful aftertaste of the past 366 days of my life.
Twenty-Sixteen started with the heavy course load of my Spring 2016 semester. After I survived that, I thought that I wouldn’t have to endure anything worse. Then, I worked my summer away in an internship. While I was grateful for the opportunity of it, I still had to deny every friend that asked to hang out, every late night, and every sunny day because I had to work. It certainly made the summer go by faster, and that certainly wasn’t good. Next came more school, and if I thought that Spring 2016 was hard, I must’ve been delusional because my Fall 2016 semester was a thousand times worse than that. In the spans of one semester I’ve dealt with many minor mental breakdowns, a few major mental breakdowns, my first car accident, an election result that made me fear for my life, and a balancing act of two jobs and the largest course load I’ve ever had.
But that was just my personal year. In Twenty-Sixteen, the Nation and the World has been in turmoil. On a small scale, there have been multiple deaths of influential celebrities like David Bowie, Prince, Muhammad Ali, and Alan Rickman. The water crisis in Flint, Michigan that affected/affects hundreds of people’s lives. The exit of Britain from the European Union that will have major consequences on the world. On a larger scale, there have been major mass shootings in Orlando, Florida and Dallas, Texas that took too many lives too soon. And, of course, the countless terrorist attacks across the world with examples being Paris, Istanbul, and Brussels. To add on to the terror, heartbreak, and anger the 2016 Election brought out the worst in our nation making it more divided than ever before.
Now, I don’t believe that a simple change of the clock between December 31st to January 1st will change all of these terrible things that have happened this year. Most of the damage is done and can never be changed. However, New Year’s is a chance for us to decide to do better. It is a hopeful light to guide us back to the right track. On December 31st we get to decide how we want to live our lives. We get to choose to do right by others, right by ourselves, and right by our futures. We can celebrate making it through this pivotal year, and pledge to do better. While you can decide to change your life at any moment, the change is more prominent for most on New Year’s Day.
So, CHEERS! To a more loving, accepting, and respectful society. CHEERS! To uniting the United States again. CHEERS! To global relations becoming more united for the better of the people. CHEERS! To you getting a chance to begin again by gaining the courage to keep going. And, CHEERS! To a brand-new year!
