i want to talk about social media.

we need to stop believing what it's telling us. stop letting it all in. all its shouting and screaming and ringing in our ears. it's too much for us to take.

stop thinking what others show you is genuinely them. we are not who we craft ourselves to be in front of the world.

This year has been pretty unfortunate in a lot of ways. As Trevor Noah said recently, "this year started with Zika...and then got bad." But, wait! There was one piece of 2016 that gives us a reason to rejoice! MUSIC!

This was, undoubtedly, one of the best years for Music in a very long time. SO MANY AMAZING ALBUMS were released this year. Almost so many it's overwhelming. And now I'm going to go over some of, what I feel, are the best albums to have been released in the year 2016. I hope that you take the time to check some of these out and discover new music. It's a great form of escapism. 

I've included a bit of everything in this list: indie, folk, experimental, soundtracks, rap/hip-hop, pop, singer-songwriter, electronic, slow, fast, sad, happy - you name it! Have fun perusing!

As this is a very long list, here is the order to help navigating easier (note, the order is completely random, not by preference): 

1. "It Doesn't Have to Make Sense" by Ingrid Michaelson
2. "Everyone Thinks I Dodged a Bullet" by Greg Laswell
3. "Cleopatra" by the Lumineers
4. "This Unruly Mess I've Made" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
5. "This is Acting" by Sia
7. "Life of Pablo" by Kanye West 
8. "Red Earth and the Pouring Rain" by Bear's Den
9. "22, A Million" by Bon Iver 
10. "Lemonade" by Beyonce 
11. "Joanne" by Lady Gaga
12. "How to be a Human Being" by Glass Animals
13. "Who Will Be Next" by Joe Purdy
14. "Young as the Morning and Old as the Sea" by Passenger 

I started this blog in January of 2014, as a way to force myself to start writing more. And every December since then, I have done a review of my year, seeing if I reached the goals I set for myself. 

Last year around this time, I wrote out my "16 for 2016." A list of what I wanted to do this year. 

Now is the time where I look back at that list, which I have since completely forgoteen, and see if I accomplished any of these goals.