2016: Looking Back, New Year Resolutions

[Anacybele]

2016 is drawing to a close, folks. Let's look back and see how the year was for us! And talk about possible new year resolutions.

For me, it was quite a year, I have to say. Lots happened.

Back in late 2015, you guys might remember that my brother took his own life. We'd been mourning him into 2016, of course, as having Thanksgiving and Christmas without him wasn't easy. We had family and good neighbors to support us, but it takes time for that kind of pain to heal. And it may never really go away completely. I've had mild PTSD from it since I was the one that found my brother after he did it. I still can't open my parents' bedroom door without trembling (that was where he was) even though the house's second floor was renovated after. I'm even jumpier than I used to be at sudden/loud noises. I thought I heard my brother's voice call me one night a few weeks ago. That was scary.

And then in March we lost our dog to cancer too. One of our dogs. I'd never had to deal with the loss of a pet before. I was missing my late grandma even more because she knew what it was like and I knew she could've helped me through it. 2016 just looked like it'd be pretty shit for us.

But it turned right around! We went to Carowinds for my birthday in May, which was fun! The Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup in June and I watched them do it! It was the first time I watched hockey playoffs all the way through. We had a 4th of July party later with some family while camping, which was cool. I wore a glow-in-the-dark mask. ^^ We noted the first anniversary of my brother's death in August, but it was still nice going back to Pittsburgh to hang with a bunch of family. We went to Kennywood and Sandcastle, the local amusement park and water park (I highly recommend them, btw, they're awesome. I hate a few of the decisions Kennywood made on ride changes over the years, but still). I hadn't been to a water park in years. I'd been begging to go to one at that point. lol

We were hit by Hurricane Matthew in October, but thankfully the only real damage we had was to our gazebo cover. It's...yeah, gone. lol

Halloween was fun, I made a Flareon costume! I supported Donald Trump in the election and he won! My parents took his side after he got the nomination as well (before that, they weren't really fond of any of the choices). Thanksgiving was great too, I got delicious blueberry pie and I watched the Pittsburgh Steelers win! The last two or three times I watched them play on Thanksgiving, they lost (the power went out at our house once during one of these too). It was nice to finally see them win here for a change. xP

Christmas was nice, not the best since we didn't get to decorate a tree and stuff this year due to spending it in Pittsburgh (we usually didn't do that, but the circumstances were different this year. We've been trying to move back there, and my stepdad got a new job there, but my mom and I haven't had job success yet), but again, I WATCHED THE STEELERS WIN. And this time they won their division AND knocked the Ravens out of the playoffs. And in a wild comeback too! I was so tired of seeing this team lose to the Ravens and when it counted most, they finally won again! Really made my Christmas.

My biggest new year resolution is to go back to school and get a degree in graphics design. I had tried college before, but now I fully realize why I failed then. I wasn't ready, I was rushed, and I couldn't put enough effort into it. I was too fresh out of high school, I needed a break and a job first. Now I got that break, got a job and earned some money, I'm ready, I want to put more effort into it. I actually can't wait to start studying and going to class. And I didn't have these feelings before. This will make the difference and be the reason I actually succeed this time. I actually want to study and get good grades harder than ever before, man.

And I think that's it for this long post. lol How about you guys?

Edited December 26, 2016 by Anacybele

[blah the Prussian]

I started out the year at my lowest point, because the Projectile Motion Investigation, which I had been procrastinating on, was like 2 weeks overdue at that point. I turned it in, got a shit grade, and moved on. I then went back to taking Aderal, and my grades improved. After that, I saw Deadpool, so that was fun, and we talked my friend out of killing himself, which was even better. Then, I saw Batman v Superman, and almost died from the concentrated awful. Then, I got second place in a debate tournament, winning the semi-final (arguing that tourism is a global menace) by claiming that tourists who go to Dubai fund ISIS, and are thus a global menace. It was fun, even though one of the five judges gave it to the other team, probably because they went to Dubai. Bastard. I also played The World Ends With You for the first time, now my favorite game ever. Anyway, I managed to do quite well in school overall, and that was when Summer happened. I had a great summer overall, going to Scandinavia with my family. In October, I went back to themStates from Prague to go to the wedding of my uncle, which was quite nice. When Trump won I wasn't exactly pleased, but at least I was able to make a Facebook post about the answer to our problems being Monarchy. So far I'm doing quite well in school, getting to my surprise a 7 in Math, the highest possible grade in the IB. So overall 2016 was good for me personally. My resolution is to not go on history rants quite so much.

Edited December 26, 2016 by blah the Prussian

[Rezzy]

My year was pretty good. Namely November 2nd was good. My daughter, Est, was born, and the Cubs won the World Series all in one day.

I successfully turned 30, which was something that I was a bit anxious about.

Sadly one of my parakeets died a couple months ago. He had a tumor on his throat, and there weren't any vets who would take birds in our town, so unfortunately, there wasn't anything we could do for him.

I don't really have any specific resolutions for next year. I've never really done them.

[Yojinbo]

I'm not one to look back - I made it throught 2016 alive and am doing fine for myself so I have nothing to complain about or look back to. Everything else is past. What will I do in 2017? My aim is to take my musicianship to a level where I can rightfully call myself a professional and make a living out of it. I don't think that really counts as a resolution though.

[Phoenix Wright]

i became a researcher over the course of the year. that's cool. i finally get to take music classes. which is cool. i met a good number of people this year, despite most of my friends graduating and going back to wherever they came from.

this year for me personally wasn't bad. this is a terrible year for the world, though.

anyway, new year's resolutions are dumb so i don't care about them.

[NJ7009]

2016.... the year started badly. My dog developed a sting of illnesses which eventually resulted in her death early in the year. However, we greeted a new puppy into the world from that which was great! I finished my time in therapy as well as managing to get into university with decent grades. Although the first few months of university was a nightmare on my social anxiety, things are finally getting better so hopefully my time will keep looking up.

New years resolution? Probably to really crack down on uni work and improve my writing since I also picked that back up again this year. Doubt either will actually happen though :P.

[Peppy]

The first two thirds of 2016 went decently enough for me. I managed to finish college and crack down on beating most of the FE's on their hardest difficulty once that was done (still need to do FE9 Maniac though. Hopefully, I can get it done before my next semester of Uni starts).

Sadly, the last third of 2016 was pretty bad for me. Me starting off at Uni was a bit of a rude awakening (Though I did much better than I thought I would with one class that I was real concerned with), Uni did not feel as good as I was all hyped upped to be and I have a rather personal issue that has brought me down to a very low point and it is still slowly bringing me down.

I have no resolutions but the fact that there is a whole new year coming up gives me a small amount of hope that I can at the very least make things better for myself.

[Lord Raven]

Fuck 2016. Horrible depression for the first half which led to me switching research labs in my third year of grad school, failed my quals (learned that I passed 1 of them by the new metric). Luckily, my new research group is good, I'm on anti-depressants, and I passed two more with hopes of passing the fourth in February. I still do not fully expect the funding I was promised for next semester.

Meanwhile, had to endure a pretty shitty Ravens season with one of my favorite players tearing a bunch of ligaments in his knee, going onto another where we were knocked out by the devil itself on Christmas because one of our best players (another of my favorites) got hurt a few games ago. I hate the Steelers because they remind me of those "bootstrappers" who represent older, shittier America.

I did lecture an actual community college course this past summer, and a lot of my students this past year liked me which is a plus. My car is 50% of the way paid off, but that was natural. Laptop died pretty badly, but I got a new one in the meantime that is way better.

As it stood, I've learned to really hate September - one of my friends/mentors committed suicide around September of last year, my uncle died of pneumonia this year, and a family friend of ours killed his wife and son and later himself leaving his sole daughter without a family. Bombings in Lahore happened in 2016, which shook me up until I found out my family that lived there was fine. The lab director at my university also died to a bike accident and he was a month away from retirement.

Then we elected president Trump and the rest is history. I don't want to bring politics in here, but there are many people where this is the shit-filled cherry on a shit-filled sundae, and let us not pretend that there are universally harmful implications from this thing, but we'll talk about that in Serious discussion - if we're talking about how we've honestly felt about the past year, this is a really shitty thing for me. Oh yeah, and my sister lost her job a week ago because her boss is a fucking asshat, and with a new house and a 17-month-old infant, the finances are in actually legitimately terrible shape now.

So basically, there were some bright spots and a lot of shit spots.

Edited December 27, 2016 by Lord Raven

[Time the Crestfallen]

I started Uni and managed to not fail any of my courses (somehow). I also got back into Warhammer 40k, so that was fun. Not the best year overall though considering everything that's happened around the world.

I don't really bother with new years resolutions, so nothing to add there.

[epilepsyduck]

A dreadful year that cannot end soon enough. The nicest thing I can say about 2016 is that 2014-2015 were worse years for me on a personal level, and I've been getting things back on track a bit throughout this year, but all the awful nonsense that's happened around the world in general prevents me from really saying this was in any way acceptable.

[Limstella]

2016 was actually pretty alright for me, not stand out or anything happened, but I know it could've been worse. As for resolutions, do more than draw I guess :P

[Flee Fleet!]

Eh, 2016 was full of good and bad for me.

I started playing games again on emulators and reduced my addiction to the internet and my laptop. Played The World Ends With You, it became my fave, along with Fire Emblem The Sacred Stones, which was the first GBA FE I played. Got new games as time passed.

Started to draw anime faces, bodies e.t.c. , and I;m improving in it slowly. Started reading Web comics again after summer ended, and started watching anime instead of reading their wikis. I also became more active here(more like lurking tho) a little before....summer, I think? Either way, it's cool that I did so. Eventually became more of a FE fan, but I lost some of my love for EarthBound in the process. Oh well, I still love em both.

Became more mature, or at the very least I think so, especially in public, and was able to become more sociable, on Facbook, here, and the real world. Still don't trust others though lol.

Grades started to deteriorate during Sep to Oct, but now I'm studying had for my January exams. Also started to spend more time with family, and participated in many events of school. Began to become more interested in different subjects, particularly Biology.

I began to watch more stuff on YouTube, like animations, life stories e.t.c So far I've enjoyed my time.

My new year resolutions are to become less childish, study more, pass my exams, become better in drawing, and become a gaming pro(like that will ever happen lol!). Would also try some new stuff, like MMOs, story writing, e.t.c.

I am also hoping for 2017 to be a more better year, for everyone!

Edited December 27, 2016 by Flee Fleet!

[Res]

On a personal basis I can't complain. My son turned one and so I'm out of the baby stage and finally getting more than 4 hrs of sleep a night (I can barely remember a thing from the past 5 years). We had a family reunion/vacation in Italy that was amazing, although traveling via Turkey a couple of hours after the coup ended was... something I'll probably never forget. I had a pretty rough first half the year, mental-health wise, but Fates actually really helped. I lost a lot of acquaintances but I made new, local friends. I survived layoffs at work, phew.

Outside my own personal bubble, though... yeah. I've been very fortunate not to be personally affected but world events are affecting a lot of my friends.

[Etrurian emperor]

On a personal level I can't complain that much. Not having stable employment is starting to bug me but I have enough to get by nice and comfortably for the time being. I'm nowhere near being old while my competition in the field very much is so time is on my side. Can't say I've had that many direct personal misfortunes this year.

Gaming didn't exactly blow my socks off this year but that's mostly my fault. If you haven't switched to next gen you shouldn't complain there's less and less to play for you. But that's the nice thing about gaming, there's so much of it that you can always go back to earlier years. I got into the shovel knight a bit overdue and booted Path of radiance up for the first time in a decade. A Fates and FF9 combo also ensured the mid point of the year was reliably occupied.

Globally speaking 2016 has been one giant disaster year though. I'm not personally involved so I'm not gonna cry anyone into a river but I do notice and lament the current state of things. Even if you're not invested in famous people dying then the coming fall of the EU and the election of Donald Trump are enough to put a bit stinker on the global year, all the more so because the impact may be felt for many years to come.

[Rezzy]

On a personal basis I can't complain. My son turned one and so I'm out of the baby stage and finally getting more than 4 hrs of sleep a night (I can barely remember a thing from the past 5 years). We had a family reunion/vacation in Italy that was amazing, although traveling via Turkey a couple of hours after the coup ended was... something I'll probably never forget. I had a pretty rough first half the year, mental-health wise, but Fates actually really helped. I lost a lot of acquaintances but I made new, local friends. I survived layoffs at work, phew.

Outside my own personal bubble, though... yeah. I've been very fortunate not to be personally affected but world events are affecting a lot of my friends.

I look forward to being able to sleep again.

I've found it's harder and harder to make time for friends as I get older. We've been lucky to keep our mostly weekly D&D or board game night with our group, though, thankfully.

Why did you go through Turkey?

[Res]

I look forward to being able to sleep again.

I've found it's harder and harder to make time for friends as I get older. We've been lucky to keep our mostly weekly D&D or board game night with our group, though, thankfully.

Why did you go through Turkey?

That's awesome that you've kept your group! Our friends all moved away these past few years (one died). Making new friends has been so tough.

Tickets were $1800 cheaper if we went through Istanbul instead of Frankfurt (our only real two options - no direct flights available).

[Pixelman]

What a wierd year. Many things happened (keep note these aren't in chronological order):

Uncle died due to bad health. It was quite unexpected. Cat died at 19 years old on the first day of school. I was so stressed going into this high school year I started crying. I went to a soccer tournament and we were doing really good, but then I tripped less than 10 minutes into the semifinals and broke 2 of my fingers and ruptured a ligament in the another. I couldn't write for a couple weeks because I happened to injure my left hand, which is my dominant hand. We ended up losing the tournament in shitty weather. I watched a bunch of movies with my friends, ranging from not good (Batman v Superman, Fantastic Beasts) to good (Civil War, Doctor Strange) to great (Arrival, 2007's Transformers). I got FE: Fates, which I think is a good game. Managed to rebuild a lot of old Bionicles I found under my little bro's bed. It was a blast. Started really bad in my Spanish class (I got an F on the first test with a curve), but managed to raise my overall grade and otherwise did really good in other classes (average all around was a B+). Accidently stumbled into /b/ and got fucked in the head. Got off my lazy butt and actually built some Gundam models during Christmas, which was extremely entertaining. Slapped my little brother in the face, which was satisfying. He also broke two of my Robot Damashii figures, which pissed me off way too much. Went bowling with my friends and it was awesome. Made a really wierd spanish video with my friend, which is actually on Youtube but it's too cringy (and nonsensical). Also I got in trouble for cheating on a test (don't do it kids). I also got Student of the Month at my school, which was cool.

Donald Trump got elected too, which isn't very good. It was interesting seeing everyone's reactions at school, though.

Also everyone died this year which sucked.

EDIT: New Year's Resolution? How about I actually try finishing my novel, kek.

Edited December 29, 2016 by Pixelman

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Seriously 2016 can go now.

Terror attacks everywhere and so many great artists died.

[eclipse]

My health is going downhill, but at least there's a few more things I can eat. It's been up and down, and I'm hoping that 2017 starts by going up and stays up.

[Skfoos]

On a personal level, the first half of 2016 was great, while the second half just sucked (even though I think I did better in school in the second half).

My resolutions are always a vague "do better than last year" because I'm too lazy to think of specific things to improve in.

[Party Moth]

My year started out with phone calls to financial aid while walking to university classes I couldn't pay for, talking with people who don't believe you are skirting the poverty line when your family's EFC is effectively 0. Somewhat related was a walk to purchase tools to commit suicide, interrupted only by a long phone call 5 minutes away from the store. It was promptly followed by the flu, which left me bedridden for a month and led to otitis media with effusion, effectively putting me out of school, work, and generally loud areas for the four months that followed that. The rest of the year was largely spent running on about $2 a day for food while hounding off debt collectors and being turned down job after job. At the same time, my grandmother developed a brain tumor.

I have no love for 2016, and my generally cynical nature has only become more so as the year has gone on. My New Year's Resolution is to not become so sick that I am literally unable to work or go to school (mostly taking breaks and getting enough food and sleep).

[Anacybele]

Wow, I didn't know so many people had a bad year. That's unfortunate, and I'm sorry to hear that. :(

But you know what? It'll be okay.

I'd seen this phrase go around intended for people who'd had bad experiences. I didn't really know exactly what it meant then. But later I had most horrible experiences in my life and people told me these words. Now I do know what it means. No matter how bad an event might be, if time and your decisions work their magic, you can recover from this. You can still live well and find nice things in life. And whenever something bad DOES happen, something good always seems to follow shortly after. And the worse the bad part was, the better the good seems to be in the end. Sometimes the good things are even entirely unrelated to the bad, I find. All in all, while good doesn't last forever, neither does the bad.

You just need to have faith in the future. Try to be positive. If you need help, get help. Time can heal, but only if you let it.

[Rezzy]

As the adage goes, "This too, shall pass."

We often remember the worst parts of the year, and it's a lucky person who goes an entire year without heartache or hardship. I try to remember the happy times over the bad.

[Ansem]

My grades could be a lot better, 2016 depends on whether or not I get an A- in biochem. Overall this year had more positives than negatives. I got into a research lab and I will TA for a UD bio course next semester. Got into apts for the year as my dorm which is pretty great as there is a lot more freedom. Granted I did start smoking halfway through the year and I have been drinking more than I have any other year, but overall 2016 was pretty alright. Reading through all of your stories makes me realize that the only thing I have to anguish about is mediocre grades and that it could be a lot worst.

[CyborgZeta]

For me personally, 2016 has been a game-changer for me thanks to an eventful Spring. The rest of the year is nothing special from my point of view, but I won't forget Spring of 2016.

In terms of politics and global events, 2016 has been a pretty exciting year to watch unfold. Terrible year for actors though.