With the year coming to a close and the world up in flames you may be straining to retrieve a sense of gratefulness from under the ruble of the current state of things. 2016 has proved to be a horrendous year for a multitude of reasons including but not limited to the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis, Brexit, the Zika virus, mass shootings, extremist groups inflicting terror upon millions, and of course the American election and its exposure of just how corrupt our system is. You may have even contemplated moving to Canada, an idea that caused the Canadian immigration website to crash in the aftermath of November 8. The reality is that you can’t escape this unless you choose to forget, in which case you would be fueling the same issues that caused you to feel that way in the first place.

Thanksgiving couldn’t come at a better time. We shouldn’t forget the world’s maladies, but rather take some time to recognize the good or else we all will lose what is left of our sanity. And yes, there is still good in this world, and no, focusing on it doesn’t mean our anger and fuel for revolution will run dry just because we stop to turn our eyes to something else for a day. In fact, the things to be thankful for are what can inspire hope and promote the change that extreme cynicism without a balance can’t.

So, here I present to you a list of some things from 2016 to be happy about this holiday season:

• The tiger population has increased
• India planted 50 million trees in one day
• We found the gene linked to ALS which brings us closer to curing it
• Juno successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit
• Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar
• An 80ft tunnel was built in New Zealand to protect penguins from traffic
• This year’s supermoon
• The world’s largest 3D Printer is making homes out of mud
• Diego the tortoise saved its species from extinction in the Galapagos by fathering 800 offspring
• A plane made it around the world powered only by solar energy
• Pokémon Go got people walking outside
• Child mortality is the lowest in human history
• There have been a lot of good memes
• The first Latina elected into the U.S. Senate
• A mayor in Ohio gave up half his salary to help his city out of a fiscal emergency
• Harriet Tubman is replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill (first woman to be placed on US currency)
• People saw color for the first time due to specially-designed glasses

And just remember—there’s always 2017.

Sources:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-good-things-that-have-happened-in-2016-2016-07-27

http://www.sunnyskyz.com/good-news/1828/The-World-s-Largest-3D-Printer-Is-Making-Almost-Zero-Cost-Homes-Out-Of-Mud

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/09/19/with-800-offspring-very-sexually-active-tortoise-saves-species-from-extinction/

https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality/