I'm not going to give a spiel about how a lot happened in 2015. It's 365 days for goodness sake, of course a lot happened. I am however going to challenge you to think through what actually happened. Go beyond the Drake/Meek Mill feud; beyond Adele's destructively powerful new album; beyond the Left Shark at the Super Bowl. Yes, beyond all of that some very important things happened. 2015 is an important year.
January
On January 7, two brothers walked into the offices of a satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, resulting in 12 deaths. U.S. President Barack Obama strongly condemned these attacks, according to whitehouse.gov, but declined to attend a unity march in Paris along side other world leaders, including German chancellor Angela Merkel.
February
In February, the internet was attacked and taken over unlike any other circumstance we've seen. People's Facebooks were flooded with images that few wanted to see and Google's search history consisted of seemingly meaningless words put together for no apparent reason. That's right, I'm talking about the blue/black or white/gold dress. An image of a dress appeared that, in certain lighting, could look like two different sets of colors. I know what you're thinking: really? Yeah, really. February proved that Americans will argue about anything.
March
In March, the ever-growing, terrorist threat and radical Islamic organization, ISIS, combined forces with Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist group out of Nigeria. While this didn't garner much national attention on the news, the combination of the two greatly empowered both groups.
April
On April 25, a 7.8 magnitude, massive earthquake devastates Nepal, with varying effects in China, Bangladesh, and India. The earthquake claimed over 9,000 lives across Western Asia.
May
Once again, like in February, the internet was taken hostage. This time, freedom still hasn't been granted to our websites and social medias. The "Netflix and Chill" phenomenon took ground in May and still terrorizes the web. The joke is so widespread that putting "and chill" after any expression at all can change its meaning to something a little more risque. Anyone up for grandma's house and chill?
June
June is the month that Christianity took a serious hit. Between the monumental amounts of news headlines that Caitlyn Jenner commanded and the legalization of gay marriage across all 50 states, the message of Jesus Christ and His unconditional love took a back seat to Christian's mantra of "hate the sin not the sinner." Read more about that here.
July
Two very hot-button topics, even these five months later, in politics occurred this month. Firstly, the Iran Nuclear Deal. In return for relief from sanctions, I ran agreed to a nuclear deal that some have labeled "historically dangerous." Read more about why that may have been a bad idea here. Secondly, the United States reopened diplomatic relations with Cuba for the first time in over 50 years. Marco Rubio, a son of two Cuban immigrants to America and a Republican nominee for president, said the opening of the embassy was "emblematic of so many of the crises [Barack Obama] has worsened in the world." Feel free to read his full comments on the Iran Nuclear deal and the Cuban embassy here.
August
The first Republican Debate took place on Fox News Channel in August. It pulled an audience of 24 million viewers, absolutely shattering all previous cable viewership records. People mainly attributed these insane numbers to the inclusion of Donald Trump in the debates and some of his onstage antics. To read records that the other Republican debates broke, read this. If you feel like indulging in some fun videos that have to do with Donald Trump, just google "Donald Trump facial expressions." You can't go wrong with any of those links.
The month of the homemade clock that some thought was a bomb and others thought was racial profiling. I think that's how it went.
October
Let's take a break from real news and talk about Drake's "Hotline Bling." Against all odds, a song about a booty call became wildly famous. I promise I'm not joking; it may be hard to believe this far into this.
November
The second devastating terrorist attack occurred in Paris in November. ISIS claimed responsibility and roughly 130 lives were lost. Despite what some may have said, ISIS was not contained. To know what I'm passive aggressively hinting at, head over here.
December
I wish we could talk about the new Star Wars movie in all its splendor or the joy of the Christmas season. However, the terrorist attacks in San Bernadino controlled the news for most of this month. To read the heartbreaking truth of how these attacks could have been avoided, read this article.
In all honesty, 2015 was a rough year. Here's to hoping that 2016 is happier, safer, and more joyful.
