I won’t lie, 2016 was pretty rough. Personally, it was one of the worst years of my life for several different reasons. However, I’m not the only one that’s glad to see the calendar change. So let’s take a look back at the past 12 months and see what became of 2016.

I don’t know what 2016 had against legendary celebrities, musicians in particular, but it seemed that everywhere we looked, another one was passing away. It started just 10 days into the new year with the passing of music icon, David Bowie. Not long after that, Merle Haggard died from pneumonia. In the following months, Prince, Muhammad Ali, Alan Rickman, Arnold Palmer, and most recently, actress Carrie Fisher with her mother Debbie Reynolds dying the next day. These are just a couple of legends that left us this year, and their impact on the world will be greatly missed.

Jumping across the pond, Great Britain voted with 52% majority to leave the European Union. Led by UK Independence Party leader, Nigel Farage, Great Britain will be on course to leave the EU by March 2019. This made the left-wing of the United States very upset. Comedian…TV host…(whatever her title is) Samantha Bee made the comment that Brits "woke up to the ruins of their own country" CNN contributor Van Jones said it was “the end of the world.” Bare with me while I give my 2-cents: Let Britain do what obviously what the want to do. The EU was a failing experiment that was controlling several countries under one umbrella, similar to a confederacy. Some of the issues Great Britain had with the EU were the universal currency (euro), open borders, and the economic troubles from both. In his victory speech to the European Parliament, Nigel Farage said, “Isn’t it funny…when I came here 17 years ago and I said that I wanted to lead a campaign to get Britain to leave the European Union, you all laughed at me. Well I have to say, you’re not laughing now are you?”

Speaking of incredible political upsets; Donald Trump was elected President of the United States over for Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Of course, any die hard liberal will tell you that Hillary won the popular vote so she should be President, and the Electoral College is a product of the racist patriarchy. Following his victory, riots (Yes, riots. Not protests.) broke out all over country with the overwhelming popular chant, “NOT MY PRESIDENT!” I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Trump was elected fairly by the same democratic system Hillary Clinton praised at her rallies, and will be President starting January 20. What I found most disturbing about the election reactions was the blatant hypocrisy from the Democratic Party and the mainstream that mocked Trump when he said the election is rigged. But after Hillary was defeated, suddenly, the election was rigged. And every finger was pointing to Russia. Was there any evidence of Russia hacking and rigging the election? No. Did that matter to them? Not at all.

On a happy note...The Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians went all the way to extra innings in Game seven to decide who would be the 2016 World Series Champion. The Cubs were down three games to one, but came back to win their first World Series in 108 years, breaking the longest championship drought in all of sports. Sports fans from coast to coast couldn’t help but admire the romance and excitement the World Series brought this year.

There’s plenty of other things that happened in 2016, but these, I feel, made a serious impact on our lives. We made it. It wasn’t a smooth ride by any means…