Hi readers!
As the school year winds down and the weather becomes a little chillier I hope you have all been able to enjoy some rest and relaxation. The sense of community I feel is always strongest around the holidays and allows me to reflect on the past year. It is so easy to be caught up in the negative, especially as a new year approaches and the holidays end, forcing us all to put down the sugar cookies and do some work again. I typically don’t set new years resolutions but I do like to try and create new habits every year that I think will allow me to be the happiest, best version of myself. I spent a lot of time this year feeling isolated and worried about the state of the world, about the history we are creating. It’s human nature to focus on the bad, but I don’t think it has to be. That’s why I wanted to remind myself, and you, about the amazing things that happened this year. I hope these news stories fill you with hope for 2018 and inspire you to focus on the good this year.
1. Mohamad Fakih, a CEO and restaurant owner, measures success by how many people he is able to help. This article includes an interview with him that is impossible to watch without a smile creeping onto your face.
2. 2017 will always stand out for me since it marked a monumental shift in our culture. The Women’s March in Washington and resulting marches held around the world gave me hope for the future and let me embrace being a ‘nasty woman’. #TimesUp and #MeToo revealed the strength and insight survivors have while making it easier to have blunt conversations about sexual assault. A lot still needs to change but these changes seem possible now, and that’s a reason to be excited.
3. Autumn Peltier is an Indigenous teenager fighting for water protection, both in Canada and internationally. Her courage and passion are inspiring and can be felt in this video, along with her respect for nature and desire to create a better world
4. Chris Long plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, but he isn’t getting paid. After using his first six-game cheques to fund educational scholarships he committed his salary for the rest of the season to create equal educational opportunities in all the cities he has played for.
As we enter 2018 and fall back into our routines, bad news will inevitably greet us, but so will good news. I hope these articles uplifted you the same way they did for me and allow you to relish in human compassion and resilience. Most of the time the most inspiring people are those we meet in our daily lives, maybe if we aren’t tangled in the negative we can be the inspiration someone needs. Kindness is the simplest way to spread positivity, and luckily it’s also the most fun.
-Emma
The views expressed in this blog are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the policies or views of the University of Victoria. I monitor posts and comments to ensure all content complies with the University of Victoria Guidelines on Blogging.