Interesting, chaotic, messy, scary, crazy, unexpected. These are just a few words that people use to describe the year of 2016. For many students, it has certainly been a journey.
2016 marked the year where the world lost some great people. Alan Rickman, best known for his “Harry Potter” role, died of cancer. David Bowie and Prince, two musical legends, also died this year. Gene Wilder, Florence Henderson, mom of “The Brady Bunch” and Doris Roberts also passed away.
Former First Lady Nancy Reagan died this year as did Morley Safer, a well known journalist for CBS. Boxing champion Muhammed Ali passed away in 2016 as well.
Garry Marshall, the man behind “Pretty Woman”, the “Princess Diaries” and “Happy Days” died as well. Christina Grimmie was gunned down in Florida, which shocked and saddened many.
Fidel Castro died recently, which many people aren’t really seeing as a bad thing since he was the dictator of Cuba.
As far as the movie scene goes, “Finding Dory” is, so far, the highest grossing movie. “Captain America: Civil War” and “The Secret Life of Pets” came in second and third place respectively. “The Jungle Book” and Deadpool rounded out the top five. All of the top five movies made over 3 million dollars.
Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar. I don’t know who was more excited, Leo or everyone else.
The top grossing album so far in 2016 is Adele’s latest. Justin Bieber and David Bowie come in second and third. Coldplay and David Bowie, again, round out the top five. Drake, Beyonce, James Bay and Little Mix are placed in the top 10.
Taylor Swift. Kim Kardashian. Kanye West. Need I say anymore?
The Rio Olympics occurred this year. Like any other event in 2016, it could not go without its own drama, mainly Ryan Lochte. The man who faked a robbery story to save his image, but it backfired so quickly. Some may say he restored his image after a stint on Dancing with the Stars, others say he is a 32 year old man who faked a robbery story to cover his drunken debauchery. An honorable mention goes out to the green water at the Olympics, dead body parts in the water and the men who accompanied Lochte on his spree.
Politics played out like a TV drama, but, in the end, the race came down to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for who would be the next president. Trump won that race with the electoral votes. Hopefully, we can all remember the good times like when the Republican candidates failed to walk out on stage when their name was called.
Dictionary.com came out with their word of the year which is xenophobia. It means intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries. It was a nod to the turmoil that has surrounded 2016.
There has also been a lot of tragedy in 2016. Istanbul, Brussels, Paris, Orlando, Bangladesh, Turkey and the list goes on. It has been estimated that almost 20,000 people have died at the hands of radical Islam and ISIS and almost 25,000 people have been injured because of it.
Maybe we can put all of the crazy parts of 2016 down to the fact that it was a leap year. Here’s hoping that the next leap year, 2020, doesn’t go the same way. In the meantime, 2017, please don’t let us down.
Laina Yost
Managing Editor