10 Things We’re Thankful For In 2016

Thanksgiving is next week – I repeat Thanksgiving is next week. 2016 is flying by, and it’s been an eventful year – one that many people are happy to put in their rearview mirror. There have been terrible tragedies here in the US and across the world (not to mention a slew of beloved musicians, actors, and public figures leaving us) and many people may feel that this year the holiday season will be a little less cheerful. In fact there are quite a few memes and blog posts on the Internet bidding adieu and good riddance to 2016 and declaring it the worst year on record.

We here at Pay4SchoolStuff.com disagree.

Yes, 2016 has been a challenging year. The P4SS team has had to deal with a few challenges ourselves (the website looks great now, but man was that hard work!), but from every challenge came something good, and we believe the same can be said for much of what’s happened in the news recently.

Every unfortunate accident or terrible incident has shown us that, at the end of the day, the good in people far outweighs the bad. For example, after the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando people in the area – whether they were residents or were tourists visiting theme parks – lined up for hours upon hours to donate blood and folks dressed in large angel wings kept protesters away from the victims’ funerals.

There are, of course, other examples of the good that has occurred in 2016 that have less to do with response to tragedy and more to do with… well, just being good. If you do a quick Internet search you’ll find quite a few lists … so here are our top 10 favorite things that we’re Thankful for that have happened in 2016.

1. India planted 50million trees in one day – yes, you read that right. In response to an agreement that was made at the Paris Climate Conference in 2015, more than 800,000 volunteers planted over 50million trees in just one 24 hour period in India. That is incredible!
2. Many previously misunderstood diseases are one step closer to being cured. This year scientists discovered the gene that causes ALS and also think they may have found a cure for MS.
3. There have been major leaps in using renewable energy. Portugal powered their entire country on renewable energy for four straight days, and a plane flew around the world without a single drop of gasoline.
4. The Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs finally – finally – won championships!
5. Wild populations of tigers, pandas, and manatees are growing across the world and those animals are closer to being removed from the endangered species lists.
6. Glasses have been designed to allow color-blind individuals to see colors the way everyone else does.
7. Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar. Okay so maybe this one isn’t a huge world achievement, but it’s  been painful watching him be nominated so many times and always missing out.
8. A new Harry Potter book was released (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) and a new Harry Potter universe film (Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them) is coming out this weekend!
9. Hospital volunteers created special costumes for babies in the NICU so that they could celebrate with their parents (if this isn’t the most adorable thing in the world we don’t know what is).
10. The decision was made to finally allow a woman – Harriet Tubman – to grace US currency.

So you see, although there were a lot of crummy things that have happened this year a lot of really good things have happened as well! And we here at Pay4SchoolStuff.com are incredibly thankful for them. We’re also thankful for you, our loyal users, who have been spreading the Pay4SchoolStuff.com message and allowing us into your schools and homes.