I was suppose to be giving myself a little vacation from "Who What Where's Why" for the eve and day of Christmas, and yet here I am writing this on the night of Dec 25th. The reason for this impromptu entree was because when I was watching some YouTube videos, I came across some videos for the movie "The Greatest Showman." If you've read my review, you know that while I had mixed reactions for the actual movie itself, I thought the songs were simply fantastic. So I came across this particular video of one of the particular songs, and it somehow made me think about what the year of 2017 was.
During the last week of this year, you will hear mine and Jiaming's recap of what transpired in 2017 on an episode of the Stuff & Junk show. Of course when thinking of what happened during a completed year, the thought that comes to your head might be "what was 2017 the year of?" Putting a label to describe a year is a little silly, but it's definitely a thought.
Some would say that it's the year of Trump as US President. Some would say that it's the year when Women stood their ground. Some would say that it's the year where discourse reigned even more than before. All those options seemed viable. Then when I watched the video for "This Is Me" (embedded below), it occurred to me that an argument could be made that proclaiming who you are is the real description of what this year was about.
Me.
"I'm the President of the USA, what I say goes. If you don't like it, too bad, that's who I am."
"I'm a woman who was sexually harassed and assaulted."
"I'm a woman and I can finally see a super-heroine in the lead of a comic book movie."
"I'm Mexican, and I'm glad that a Disney Pixar movie is representing my culture."
"I'm Asian, and we want more representation in our culture."
"I'm a white American, and minorities are taking my country away from me."
"I'm a huge Star Wars fan, and I loved "The Last Jedi."
"I'm a huge Star Wars fan, and I hated "The Last Jedi."
This is me.
A lot of people this year seems to be proud to proclaim their identity in society and in the world. Whether it's for good or bad things, the point is that a lot of people are owning up to who they are. They are essentially saying "Damn you if you don't like what you see." Of course I personally rather not have racists and elitists be proud of being horrible people, but hey that's who they are... I guess?
I've always said that in order for every one to get along with each other, they need to know who they are first. Once they can identify who they are, they can start seeing the strengths and faults. If they can't see it themselves, others will, and vice-versa. When everybody is able to understand who they are as a person, maybe we can finally open up a dialog in how we all can get along together, to build a better future for everyone.