It's been a rough year for many folks: lots of celebrity deaths that impacted people particularly hard, lots of negativity across the American political spectrum, lots of negative news stories, lots of hardship economically and otherwise.
Some have cried out about how horrible 2016 is as a year. And I hesitate to paint the entire year with that brush — there remains too much time to just give up, but hey it's hard. I could, of course, focus on all that negativity and pain, or I can look to ways to change and move forward, of ways to create and bring about positive change.
I don't always succeed — some days it feels more like two steps backward for every forward step — but I like to think that the future can be a whole lot brighter if we only put some effort in. And watching people I know and respect work for causes they feel passionate about makes me so much more likely to want to follow that model of behaviour and step forward on the right footing to do good things.
Some days, it's all I can do to be an adult and get chores done or do other important tasks. Other days I feel like a productivity monster. Sometimes time flies by and at other moments each moment is dragged out to feel like a hundred thousand years.
Sometimes it feels like 2016 is a step back in time, and at others I marvel at all the progress we've made and continue to make. Looking at my day I can be proud of all that we might be doing, accomplishing or otherwise.
No, it's a heck lot more than just an attitude — and attitudes are hard to alter… but I definitely like to think that 2016 is more than a dumpster fire. I like to hope that 2017 will improve things for so many people. In the interim, let us hope, and fight and work to ensure that we move forward as best as we are able.