What do you want to make happen in 2017? Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/art-and-culture/happy-new-year-2017-best-new-year-sms-whatsapp-facebook-messages-to-send-happy-new-year-greetings-4450953/.

Welcome to 2017! Here’s to good health, happiness, and success. How did you all ring in the New Year?!

What a year 2016 was – there was a lot of devastation both locally and globally as well as a collective horrified disbelief at the outcome of the recent U.S. presidential election. However, there were also a number of very positive things (coming up in my next post) that were happening in the world at the same time. This year, I really hope the scale of these positive changes will widen to include issues in countries that have ongoing crises, such as Syria, Turkey, Iraq, South Sudan, and the Congo. Additionally, I’m hoping to see more global developments in the areas of climate change, minority rights, women’s rights, persons with mental health issues and disabilities, and prison conditions. A few ways we can help include educating ourselves and others about world issues, becoming activists to represent issues we’re passionate about, doing what we can to ease the suffering of those who need help, and reminding ourselves and others to never lose hope.

It’s easy to write off a whole year as terrible because there were important world issues that went unresolved and wars and deaths that weren’t even reported on, but what’s the point in doing that? As you’ll read in my next post, some great changes and advances were made and I think it’s really important to remember them alongside the bad things that happened. We need to celebrate the little victories more often! They’ve likely made a difference in many lives (maybe even in our own) and that’s something that we, as a society, can be proud of.

Personally, 2016 was a great year for me; the highlight was visiting India for the first time and seeing where my great-grandparents came from. The disappointing part was not being able to complete my degree as planned, though I try not to be too hard on myself about that as everyone goes at their own pace. In 2017, I will be graduating from Dalhousie University, finding and starting my first full-time job, and obtaining my full driver’s license. Some personal goals or resolutions that I have are to volunteer more within my community, to be as physically active as possible, to explore more of Toronto, and to keep donating used clothes, toys and books to local organizations, some of which are accessible to refugees living in T0ronto. I’d love to hear your resolutions for 2017 – feel free to leave a comment below! Thanks for reading. 🙂