The Notre Dame Cathedral is on fire. Grumpy Cat is dead. SNL is no longer funny. Drake is the mystery guest for Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival. No, you’re not in hell. It’s just 2019.
Personally, my 2018 wasn’t so hot either. So when I got the chance to ring in the new year surrounded by all my friends, I foolishly started out my year full of hope.
Somehow, it seems like everyone’s 2019 was a nightmare. Be it the time ICE almost deported 21 Savage, when Lil Wayne and Blink-182 did the joint tour no one asked for or the video Gina Rodriguez posted on her Instagram story of her saying the N-word, the year was disastrous.
Nothing 2020 has in store could surprise me anymore.
Day after day, headline after headline, writing off the year as a complete disaster seems increasingly easier. However, somehow, we must find a way to pick through the wreckage and find some good in the overwhelming bad.
I remind myself of new friends I made in college, how I found reassurance in my major and an overall feeling of stability in myself that I developed this year.
I'm especially thankful that 2019 taught me self-care. This year tore down my confidence piece by piece and made me realize how alarmingly dependent I was on others and how afraid I was to be alone.
Almost the direct outcome of this discovery, I spent a good chunk of 2019 by myself. But it was also a year spent getting to know myself, and recently, I’ve really started liking who I am.
More importantly, My Chemical Romance announced their reunion, Netflix added Victorious to its lineup, TikTok is becoming more popular than ever in the U.S. and everyone is finally going to therapy.
Not to mention, Twitter has been having a year-long field day thanks to the hellfire that is 2019. The year brought along some top tier tweets like “Pete Davidson and Pete Davidson in a wig have called it quits,” “We live in a society” and anything related to the movie “Ma.”
Wallows, Vampire Weekend, The Drums and Tyler, the Creator all dropped great albums this year. We were blessed with new seasons of “Veronica Mars,” “Stranger Things,” “The Good Place” and “The End of the F***ing World” and the first season of the incredible “Shrill.”
Animals have taken over the internet, too, and really who would object to that? Cows pop up on my Twitter feed while funny snippets of cats and dogs rule TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
It’s easy to be a pessimist. Especially when the entire year sucks. But even this enormous, dark and gloomy cloud has a tiny, (albeit almost invisible) silver lining. Maybe you have to squint a little, but it’s there.
So out with the good, the bad and the really ugly of 2019, and in with the new glimmer of hope that is 2020. Until that all goes to hell, too.
Reach the reporter at swindom@asu.edu and follow @SaraWindom on Twitter.
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