2017 was definitely a roller coaster of a year. Included in the year were many hot new trends and several catastrophic events. 2017 had its ups and downs and to be honest went by quite fast. Considering how much has happened, it’d be wrong not to look back on the year in review and reminisce all the different things that occurred.

Kicking off this review in January, probably the biggest thing to happen to this country is when Donald Trump was sworn in as our president on January 20th. Immediately following this the next day was the women’s march, rounding up about 5 million people worldwide. These people marched for human rights and other controversial issues such as immigration and healthcare. Also in the month of January was the release of two hit songs being “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran and “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee. Following up with these singles was the release of a really big album called “The Best of Bangtan Sonyeondan” by BTS which was released on January 6th. And of course a month wouldn’t be complete without a very popular meme, January’s being “Salt Bae”. The beautiful, muscular Turkish chef that elegantly sprinkles salt onto his dishes.

Following right after is the month of February. On February 26th, the annual Oscars event was held. What made this event bigger than what it is already is was the mistake they made when awarding the Best Picture 2017 Award. They presented it to the cast of famous movie “La La Land” when they actual winners were the cast of Moonlight, creating a lot of awkward tension in the auditorium. Also, a hit song of 2017 that was released was “Something Just Like This” by the Chainsmokers on the 22nd of February. Another big hit that sweeped the internet was slime. Slime was everywhere, where all kinds of people would experiment and create new forms of slime with a great aesthetic. To end off this month we had two really great memes being the “Roll Safe” meme and the “Shooting Star” meme.

Going into March, two major blockbuster movies were released. The first one is the movie “Logan”, which was released on March 3rd. The other big hit was Disney’s live action recreation of one their classic stories, “Beauty and the Beast”, which was released on March 17th. In the topic of music, two big albums were also released. The first album is “Divide” by Ed Sheeran which was released on March 3rd. The other album release was “American Teen” by rising star Khalid also on March 3rd. Asides from albums, 2 songs were released in March that made it to the Billboard’s top 5. The first song is “That’s What I Like” by Bruno Mars which was released on March 1st. The other song is “Humble” by Kendrick Lamar which was released on March 30th. Diving into the topic of trends, charcoal masks became a huge trend, with people all over the internet trying out these black face masks. The meme of the month was the Italian meme. Jokes all around about everyday things and how it’s different to Italians. These jokes range from things like straws to hand signals.

As April came along, the month started with off with a rather harsh event. On April 9th, a poor soul by the name of Dr. David Dao was harshly dragged off of his flight. The doctor was struck and left with a broken nose. Moving onto some more positive news, many people were ecstatic over the new hit movie “The Fate of the Furious” from the Fast and the Furious series. In the music business, a big album named “Damn” was released by Kendrick Lamar on April 14th. Wrapping up the month of April, there was a huge trend that just hasn’t really seemed to die off yet. Fidget spinners have taken the country by storm and is still raging on.

The month of May ended with a very grim event. On the 23rd of May, there was a bombing at Ariana Grande’s concert. Many lives were lost and people were in deep mourning for the families that were a part of this catastrophic event. However, on a more uplifting note, there was the release of superhero movie, but this time under the DC name. Wonder Woman was released on May 25th. Also in the media industry was the release of the very popular album “Everybody” by Logic. The album grew in popularity after discussing many controversial issues and of course for having an amazing sound. And of course the meme of the month is none other than the “Spongebob mocking” meme. The hilarious photo of famous cartoon character Spongebob posed as a chicken making rudely mocking someone else.

Jumping into the summer season, June 1st marked a very disappointing moment for many people of this country. It was on June 1st that President Trump withdrew America from the Paris Agreement. Acting as a small distraction from this very tragic decision, Ariana Grande held another concert to recognize and address what had happened in the bombing of her previous show. The show was named “One Love Manchester” and was held on June 4th. After this, Marvel released another new movie on June 28th. A very hyped up movie that many fans were anticipating. The movie was “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and it lived up to the hype. Fans old and new were extremely impressed with the new recreation of the classic Spider-Man series. June was also another month where a new trend started to boom. The new trend was the “floor is lava” challenge. The very classic game you would play with your friends and family as kids now became a hot new challenge everywhere. People would be given 5 seconds to get themselves off of the floor safely.

July was a very quiet month with not too many big events occurring. A movie that people had little to no desire of seeing was the “Emoji Movie.” The movie had very low expectations and did  not do so well in the Box Office and was seen as a joke. Critics came to describe it as an adult’s poor attempt at connecting with the youth. In the music industry, the release of 21 Savage’s “Issa Album” on July 7th gained a lot of popularity as time went on. To wrap up July’s very slow month, the dancing hot dog on Snapchat became an enormous sensation. People started dressing up as it for Halloween, creating jokes and memes out of it, all around became very popular.

In addition to the reopening of schools, August proved to be a very eventful month. On the 21st of August, there was the craze about the solar eclipse. Everyone was on the hunt for glasses to safely watch the event. However, a few days later a rather unfortunate event occurred on the southern coast of the United States. On August 25th, Texas was struck by Hurricane Harvey, leaving millions devastated and horrified. In the movie productions section of the month, Stephen King’s famous story “It” was given a 2nd reboot and did incredibly well in the box office. The meme of the month would have to go to the “Distracted Boyfriend” meme. This joke started with a simple stock photo of a boyfriend and his girlfriend walking, but with the boyfriend staring off at some other girl. People took this photo and expanded on the possibilities of this image, creating more and more jokes of it.

September was a very somber month. Following Hurricane Harvey, two additional hurricanes gained a lot of traction. The first hurricane after Hurricane Harvey was Hurricane Irma. This hurricane made way and struck Puerto Rico on the 10th of September. After this, Hurricane Maria grew very intensely and caused a lot of damage to Florida. Many people were left with no shelter, food, and water after these world disasters. Taking a look back in August with the release of August, of course people were going to create new memes of the movie. The “It” memes grew in popularity, specifically the scene where the clown would lure in the child.

In the spooky month of October, America had once again experienced one of its worst mass shootings. This shooting took place in Las Vegas, leaving 58 dead and 546 injured in the mess of it all. The shooting brought more attention to the topic of gun control, but there has not been much change since. Something that seemed to distract a lot of people from this troubling shooting was the release of Stranger Things season 2. The popular original Netflix show finally got its 2nd second season, giving their fans what they’ve been waiting for. The meme of the month was actually a song this month. The song was “Mans Not Hot” by Big Shaq.

November had a very disappointing start for a lot of Dodger fans. As many know, the Dodgers lost their world series playing against Astros in a 5-1 series. And once again in the movie industry, another superhero movie is released. On November 17th, the movie “Justice League” was released. A very famous artist also gained popularity once again this year with the release of her new album. The album “Reputation” by Taylor Swift was released on November 10th. Asides from this short list of things, November showed to be a very short lived month.

Finally, to wrap it all up, we have the month of December. As much as everyone would love a happy ending to the year, December hasn’t given us much. On December 14th, Net Neutrality was repealed by the FCC, causing a storm of rage among many. K-Pop star Kim Jonghyun also died recently on the 18th of December from the pressure of the very competitive Korean music industry. To end on a more positive light, Star Wars fans received the 8th episode of the series.