2016 in Review

I’ve seen a lot of social media posts lately from people proclaiming their excitement that 2016 is almost over.

I know their intentions behind these posts were not how others or I would react but rather as a means to express frustration that a new year would, in turn, bring better memories, experiences and results than the one we currently have.

Personally, I am deeply saddened and heartbroken by these posts.  Not because I disagree with them, because perhaps I do.  And not because I feel that there is something I can do to fix these feelings, because there is not.  But rather because I feel that there is so much more to look back on and think about in this past year than we truly realize.

I heard it said recently that in a survey of the world’s population, the most commonly said first words when the clock strikes midnight in the new year are either “happy” or “love.”  While I recognize that these words are parts of statements usually along the lines of “Happy New Year” or “I love you,” I think that this shows something about human nature more than we recognize beyond surface meaning.  By proclaiming our happiness and love for one another just as we enter a new year, we start the year on a high note and embrace two of the highest human values, while igniting the hope that the new year will allow us to feel and live them ourselves.  What could be more beautiful than that?

Well, there actually is something slightly more beautiful than that.  Referring back to my original statement, I can see why people would be excited that 2016 is over.  I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately-and was debating even talking about it at all-but it all seemed to come together and make sense.  We’ve seen a lot of deaths this year, especially recently.  Whether you lost someone this year who personally touched your life or was just someone you admire, there is no denying that when a person dies, an assortment of happy thoughts arise surrounding the person’s life.  We remember the good things while simultaneously ignoring the bad, as a way to preserve their memory and allow them to “go” in a way that is comforting to us.

In a sense, 2016 ending is [also without denial] similar in many ways to a death.  There are so many ways to look at 2016 ending, yet we as a society have chosen to look at it from one perspective without taking into account all of the wonderful and amazing events that it gave us and allowed us to bring light into our lives. 

If you look at it from one perspective, 2016 was a year of loss and hardship for many; for me, it was a year of transition, change and a lot of saying goodbye.  Packing up four years worth of boxes at the end of my senior year made college seem much less than it was, and having to say goodbye to my best friends and roommates was even harder.  Then came moving to DC.  I’ll give it to you straight here.  I am the girl who in an instant would make the decision to move to a new city knowing almost no one without even taking a split second to think about the potential consequences (i.e. the struggles of finding somewhere to live, feeling guilty about staying in my apartment doing homework when I could be at a museum, etc.).  The move to DC was great and it has allowed me to really grow as a person, but I still acknowledge that the experience hasn’t been perfect: some classes were extremely difficult for me, having to make new friends in the blink of an eye was a wee bit of a shock and there are still some elements of DC causing me some confusion about my life’s choices.  But why only look at it like this, I wonder?

At the same time, 2016 was a year of great triumph and happiness for many; for me, it was a year of transition, change and saying a lot of new hellos (see what I did there?!).  Hellos to new opportunities and experiences, like the wonderful internships I had this past year in both Miami and Jacksonville.  Hello to a new school which is allowing me to pursue my life’s passion.  Hello to new classmates and fellow DC residents, my cousins who live not far from me now, and camp friends who I did not even know were living that nearby.  Sure, saying goodbye to my old school and my old friends was incredibly difficult but also only made easier by the fact that we still talk almost every day and can keep up with each other’s lives through social media.  2016 also provided me with new outlets through which I could really enjoy myself and the life I was creating; I’ve since redeveloped my love of running, I’ve found a wonderful coffee shop where I do work, and I’ve lost any sense of misdirection I ever had as a kid and navigated my way around my new city.  Sure, there have been some difficult experiences and times that I have wanted to pull my hair out (namely midterms & finals), but these positive experiences have allowed me to see life from new perspective when everything seems to be going wrong.

The more I come to think about it, 2016 was a year of not just transition and change, but one of true self-discovery and development.  As these personal feelings come out onto paper, I have come to realize more that so-called “negative” and “positive” ways of looking at the year are not necessarily separate feelings but rather byproducts of each other.  In a sense, I feel that this is how we as a society should look at 2016.  Yes, there were some hard times (election season, deaths of family members and friends, etc.) but at the same time there were some pretty darn good ones (celebrations of important milestones, being in good health, achieving personal goals, etc.).  And when you look back on all of these memories, these puzzle pieces that created the image that we construct in our heads as “2016,” which do YOU want to look back and think about?  Ponder that for a second…I dare you.

On Saturday night I, like the masses, will watch the fireworks and drink the champagne and participate in all of the festivities that make NYE so great.  We’ll sing the songs and cheer with happiness as we ring in the new year together.  Before that, though, I want to leave you with one final thought.  Remember that survey I mentioned at the beginning of this post?  Yeah, well it turns out that not everyone is all that precise when it comes to timing.  So in theory it probably turns out that while the first words said by many as the clock strikes midnight and we ring in a new year are “happy” and “love,” they are also likely the last words said by many others as the previous year closes and transitions into a new one.  Could you think of a better way to end/begin the year than that?

I hope you have a happy and healthy new year.