5 Reasons To Be Optimistic About 2018. Seriously.

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This morning, I Googled "reasons to be optimistic about 2018." Nothing came up. Ok, only "reasons to be optimistic about technology in 2018," or "reasons to be optimistic about the Packers in 2018." Just specific little niches of life that merit good cheer in the coming year, for some people anyway, but not the big-picture positivity I was looking for. Tellingly, as I was typing in "reasons to be optimistic in...," Google's predictive text tried to add "2015" or "2016" or even "2017" (ha) but not 2018, the year that has pretty much everyone going, "Holy F'ing F, what are we in for now?" 

So here's my own little list of reasons to cheer up this January. Because damn it, I do want-slash-need to feel sunny about 2018. I even woke up on this icy NYC morning thinking, "Hey, let's get on with this!" That's despite the fact that someone rang our apartment buzzer by accident at 4 o'clock this morning and woke up our two kids, got them all agitated pre-dawn on their first day back at school, and pissed off my husband and me. But the night is over. Today's a new day. Here goes:

  • Reason Number One: The world sure does seem racked with real and impending catastrophes, but actually the overall picture is pretty bright on many fronts: Global poverty and income inequality are on the decline. and half the number of children die worldwide from preventable diseases than in 1990. Read this Nicholas Kristof column in the Times (which is in fact dated January 2017) to feel better about 2018 too, and not just because of the upcoming who-knows-how-they'll-turn-out midterms. It I'm sure Kristof would like to delete the fourth sentence though. 
  • Reason Number Two: Brain scientists are telling us that the fastest (and cheapest) way to get a happiness boost is to ponder what we're grateful about. And if things are super-tough right now and we can't think of anything right away, even just the act of trying to think about gratitude gives us a high. That's from UCLA Neuroscientist Alex Korb's new book The Upward Spiral (via this link). Encouraging stuff.
  • Reason Number Three: Starting this month, hundreds of hours of highly watchable TV are coming our way in 2018. If you're like us, an ep or two is your late-night reward after non-stop days of busting ass at work or taking care of kids or whatever keeps you at a breathless sprint all week. Among the shows we're personally looking forward to: the new American Crime Story season, Grown-Ish, The Chi, The Alienist, and the final season of GOT (already?!).
  • Reason Number Four: The Instant Pot. Admittedly I haven't used it yet, but I'm extremely optimistic about it. 
  • Reason Number Five: On a personal note, a bunch of dear friends are expecting babies in the new year. Yeah, it's a rough world out there. Always has been, and it's possibly even more so now (my brilliant 100-year-old great-uncle, a historian, even thinks so). But babies are so freaking sweet, and I'm excited for lots of doses of sweetness, of the baby kind and dessert kind and plain-old human kindness kind, in the new year. 

Have a happy one, and let me know what's cheering you up today or anytime!

Photo by Jason Briscoe on Unsplash.