2016: My Year In Review

hand-1105331_640This has been a very strange year.

Who would have thought a year ago Donald Trump would be our next president?  I explained all my reasons he won previously: Hillary’s misguided campaign and low-information culture.  However, I do think there is some truth in saying that there are two sides of America and one side – working class whites – felt left out of the conversation.

Nonetheless, I do want Trump to succeed.  When he succeeds, everything that matters to me will also succeed – my family, my friends, my business and my livelihood. Unless there is a miracle before January 20, he will be our next president.  I can already see all the achievements Obama made over the last eight years disappear as soon as Trump comes to the White House.  I want to hope for the best, but I might have to settle for the worst.

Then on top of all that, we lost a lot of great people this year – Prince, David Bowie, John Glenn, Muhammed Ali and many others.  As I was writing this, I found out George Michael passed away too.  It almost seemed like Fidel Castro would live forever. Unlike George Michael, good riddance to Castro.  Hopefully, other aging dictators will be departing soon too.

Because this year was so stressful, I hope to continue with the work/life balance by doing less TV and internet searching and reading more books.  I want to also continue growing my business.  I was actually able to travel more for leisure this year to Canada, Morocco, Spain, and France.  And just when you think you are traveling to get away from all the political madness in America, I find it head-on in these locales too!  Almost everyone I met from Toronto to Madrid across many languages had the same question: “What is the deal with Donald Trump?”

I would just say: I don’t know; I didn’t vote for him, Je ne sais pas or No se, no voté por él. No es mi presidente as I said to one really disgruntled man in Barcelona.

I feel like I am going to have to do this a lot over the next four years.

Let’s be hopeful.  See you on the other side… of the new year!